They are co-principal investigators for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. It is not surprising that this report has garnered so much media attention. They are justifiably concerned about whether they are doing the right thing when they hand their infants and toddlers over to be cared for by someone besides themselves for several hours each day. We want to note that the findings have been misrepresented in many recent media features. The study findings simply cannot lead responsible scientists to conclude that child care puts kindergarten children at risk for elevated amounts of aggression.
Parents deserve the real story.
There are three crucial features of the findings about aggression that parents need to know. First, among kindergarten children with extensive child-care experience, the study found average or normal amounts of aggression. The average kindergarten child's aggressive behavior was not elevated above normal even if the child had been in full-time child care since infancy. Second, even though 17 percent of the children with extensive child-care histories were in the group with elevated levels of aggression, this is not a dire number, as many have implied. That is, using the same grouping procedure with any large number of normal children, about 17 percent will be elevated on a given characteristic.