We would wager that home-schooled children are also less aggressive, disruptive and disobedient in group settings than children in schools. Home-care children are slightly less aggressive in preschool and kindergarten classrooms than children who have experienced regular child care since infancy. It includes not just behavior like fighting with others, but also behavior like clowning around, seeking adult attention, talking a lot and disturbing other children. These kinds of behaviors may well be related to the transition to school and are likely to dissipate as children adjust to the demands of a more formal setting. The comparison to children cared for at home is the same in both instances.
School is an institution and a cultural ideal.
In this country, professional child care is neither. Never mind that economic shifts have made it necessary for most women to work - women who remain at arms' length from feminism, know nothing about its history or its tenets, and would vociferously deny any identification with it. Never mind that the weight of evidence regarding child care is weak when it comes to associations between development and amount of time spent in care - but is consistent, stable and robust when it comes to associations with quality of care. Indeed, high quality child care has been used effectively as an intervention for decades for children from troubled or overwhelmed families who cannot provide enough stimulation or emotional support. All rights reserved.