Low-Quality Day Care Means High Stress Levels For Children

Leaving home for daycare is often an upsetting experience for young children. However, the quality of child care can make a huge difference as to whether children stay upset or gain new social and linguistic skills while away from home. According to a new Australian report, this difference also produces measurable differences in levels of biomarkers showing stress in children.

Researchers at Perth's Edith Cowan University monitored 117 preschoolers in 16 daycare centers for the study. The quality of each center was rated as unsatisfactory, satisfactory or high quality based on relationships between staff and children, respect for children, communication with families, staff interaction, programs and planning and child supervision.

Using saliva samples, researchers also measured levels of cortisol, a hormone tied to the stress response, in the children in both the morning and afternoon. Cortisol levels normally reach their highest levels shortly after waking and drop throughout the day. During times of chronic stress, the hormone may remain level or even increase.

Sims found that for children placed in high quality centers, cortisol levels followed the former pattern, declining as the centers' staff comforted them and responded to their needs. This pattern was especially dramatic for children from disadvantaged homes. These children showed the greatest drop in cortisol levels when placed in high quality child care centers, but also responded well to lower quality care. The findings suggest that even a low-quality care environment may be better for a child's wellbeing than an unstable home.

For children from healthy homes, the story was different. Even programs labeled "satisfactory" failed to produce drops in cortisol in these children. Only in high quality child care did children who regularly received quality care at home experience low stress levels.

Researchers note that high stress levels have a long-term impact on children's health and learning. Chronically high cortisol levels have been associated with learning and behavioral problems, immune suppression and even brain damage. In the developing brains of children, the hormone may further prevent the proper formation of neural pathways.

In order to provide children with environments that encourage learning and social development, the report notes that family involvement, long-term programs, adequate staff and committed primary caregivers are needed. However, current conditions in both Australia and North America mean that preschool teachers often face long, stressful days at low wages. Noting that this time may be the most critical period in learning development, the report suggests that a "national recognition of the importance of the early years" is necessary in order to implement changes to the child care system that would retain well-trained workers who can realistically implement quality early childhood programs.

FULL TEXT: What cortisol levels tell us about quality in childcare centres (PDF)