Loss of family income has also been found to hurt children. In addition, asking women to give up their jobs and stay at home might cause them to become depressed, she said, which has been shown to have a negative effect on children. Other solutions might include training child-care providers to work with children on social skills and preventing behavior problems, Friedman said. Higher quality programs are considered to be those with stimulating and well-organized environments in which children are read to and given individual attention. But that isn't the reality.
Parents have to work.
Indeed, the national welfare reform policy in 1996 required low-income women to work, and sent many scrambling to find child care they could afford. Whitebook cautioned that there are many factors that could explain the correlation between child care and problem behavior. Some kids are in child care all day, but they also have to come home to really stressed parents, who have errands to run and may have to work at home. Times staff writer Jeff Gottlieb and the Washington Post contributed to this story. These pages are dedicated to all kids, but especially to Riana, Maia, and Christopher.