ABSTRACT
Theoretical and practical concerns have recently stimulated a vigorous debate concerning the effects of day care on young children (see Belsky, 1986, in press; Belsky, Steinberg, & Walker, 1982; Clarke-Stewart, in press; and Lamb & Sternberg, in press, for reviews). Increasing scholarly interest in the effects of rearing and cultural contexts on children’s development has reinforced a practical concern driven by the increasing numbers of dual-earner and single-parent families seeking out-of-home care for their children. Few researchers have substantiated the initial presumption that nonparental care would prove to be harmful for young children, but the conclusiveness of the available evidence is limited by the common focus on high-quality center-based care facilities providing care for socioeconomically homogeneous samples. The purpose of the research described in this chapter was to examine the effects of the quality of family and center day care on firstborn Swedish children from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, including in our design measures of family background characteristics and pre-enrollment measures of relevant child characteristics. The findings discussed here were presented in greater detail by Broberg, Lamb, Hwang, and Bookstein (1987); Ketterlinus, Bookstein, Sampson, and Lamb (1988); Lamb et al. (1988); and Lamb, Hwang, Broberg, and Bookstein (in press).
