Empirical Article
Little Evidence That Time in Child Care Causes Externalizing Problems During Early Childhood in Norway
Henrik D. Zachrisson,
Eric Dearing, Ratib Lekhal, Claudio O. Toppelberg,
Corresponding Author
Henrik D. Zachrisson
Norwegian Institute of Public Health
The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Henrik D. Zachrisson, Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, Nydalen, Oslo 0403, Norway. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected].Search for more papers by this authorClaudio O. Toppelberg
Harvard Medical School
Judge Baker Children's Center
Search for more papers by this authorHenrik D. Zachrisson,
Eric Dearing, Ratib Lekhal, Claudio O. Toppelberg,
Corresponding Author
Henrik D. Zachrisson
Norwegian Institute of Public Health
The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Henrik D. Zachrisson, Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, Nydalen, Oslo 0403, Norway. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected].Search for more papers by this authorClaudio O. Toppelberg
Harvard Medical School
Judge Baker Children's Center
Search for more papers by this authorThe authors acknowledge the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, which is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health, NIH/NIEHS (Grant N01-ES-85433), NIH/NINDS (Grant 1 UO1 NS 047537-01), and the Norwegian Research Council/FUGE (Grant 151918/S10). The authors express their deep appreciation for Stuart Hauser, MD, PhD, a cherished mentor and friend who made this international collaboration possible. Three of the authors (HDZ, ED, and COT) received support from the Norwegian Research Council. The authors acknowledge feedback from Drs. Burchinal and McCartney, and from three anonymous reviewers.
Abstract
Associations between maternal reports of hours in child care and children's externalizing problems at 18 and 36 months of age were examined in a population-based Norwegian sample (n = 75,271). Within a sociopolitical context of homogenously high-quality child care, there was little evidence that high quantity of care causes externalizing problems. Using conventional approaches to handling selection bias and listwise deletion for substantial attrition in this sample, more hours in care predicted higher problem levels, yet with small effect sizes. The finding, however, was not robust to using multiple imputation for missing values. Moreover, when sibling and individual fixed-effects models for handling selection bias were used, no relation between hours and problems was evident.
Supporting Information
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| cdev12040-sup-0001-AppendixS1-TabliS1-Figs1.docWord document, 74 KB | Appendix S1. Robustness Checks. Table S1. Correlations Between Measures of Externalizing Problems and Hours in Child Care at 18 and 36 Months. Figure S1. Unconditional Associations Between Hours in Child Care and Externalizing Problems at 18 and 36 Months of Age. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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