But that does not mean that red hair causes bank robbing. If kids do have real behavior problems, it could be due not to day care per se, but to the fact that underpaid day care workers aren't trained to deal with children's emotional issues. Researchers also suggest that stressed-out parents could be the causative factor. The latter would hardly be surprising. Unlike European societies, the U.S. has made little societal accommodation to the fact that nearly 70 percent of parents today are working.
Schools still operate on the same hours as they did in the pre-industrial age.
There is little government-subsidized day care, as there is in France and Sweden. Maternity and paternity leaves are short and usually unpaid, and vacation time is shrinking for American workers. In fact, studies of children raised in Israeli kibbutzes found these children quite the opposite of aggressive. But Belsky, in a press conference announcing the findings, said that parents ought to work less. Another researcher chided him, saying that he shouldn't be making policy statements at this stage.