Day Care Observation Paper

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Adam Bengtson Paper 1 Psych 301 9/25/14 Schwartz (1983) investigated how length of day-care attendance correlated to attachment behavior in eighteen-month-old infants. Schwartz’s study set out to determine the differences in attachment behavior of eighteen-month-old infants in relation to their length of day-care attendance or lack of attendance. This study specifically focuses on eighteen-month-old infants from middle-class families where all of the infants had been placed into full time day-care before the age of 9 months, part time day-care or if they attended no day-care at all. In conducting this study Schwartz observed fifty 18-month-old infants and their mothers in order to see the effects of daily separation the between the mothers …show more content…

Infants were observed at 12 months old with procedures that consisted of a series of episodes. These episodes included attachment and exploration behaviors in circumstances that became gradually stressful. The infants were also observed based on their behaviors once they were reunited with their mother after separation for a short period of time. At 42 months the mothers respect for autonomy, hostility, and the child’s avoidance of the mother. They were then observed in social withdrawal, self-esteem, self-control, aggression, emotional health, and externalizing upon entering kindergarten. Results of this study show that the children who were securely attached to their mother had a higher chance to be negatively affected by early out-of-home care where as for the insecurely attached children it proved to be more beneficial. The insecure children that entered day care proved to have a higher level of proactivity in comparison to home-cared. As for the secure children who attended day-care, they came to show more aggression and became more …show more content…

The first study consisted of 28 children averaging seven years of age. All of these children had full-time infant day-care before the age of 2 with an average of 6.7 months. The children also remained in the same nursery school before starting grade school. Packets were sent to the mothers to rate their own introverted/extroverted behavior and included a number of background questions on the child such as age, participation in gifted programs, and awards the child has received. The children were also sent a questionnaire packet included a self-concept scale and magic markers, with which the children were directed to draw a self-portrait. These portraits were judged by use of colors, placing of body parts, size of drawing, and facial expresions. Results of this study show that the number of friends the children had was positively related to the time spent in quality day-care. Based off the children’s drawings the study also notes that the more time a child spends in quality day-care leads being less despressed and having a higher self-esteem. The children who spent more time in quality day-care have also shown better socially and emotionally behaviors at the early grade school

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