Personality Development between 1 and 8 Years of Age in Swedish Children with Varying Child Care Experiences

Abstract

In this longitudinal study, 122 Swedish children were followed from an initial assessment at 16 months until they were 8.5 years of age. Parental ratings of field independence, ego-resilience, and ego-control were obtained using the California Child Q-set when the children averaged 28, 40, 80, and 101 months of age. These assessments of personality were then examined in the context of contrasting child care experiences. There was virtually no difference between the developmental trajectories of the children in home care and in centre-based day care. In contrast, ego-undercontrol decreased less, whereas ego-resilience and field independence increased less, in children who attended family day care than in the children in either centre care or exclusive parental care. The quality of home and out-of-home care, as well as socioeconomic status and family background, did not moderate or qualify these effects of the type of care experienced. The results are discussed in relation to previous work on the effects of early out-of-home care on child development.

Effects of Nonmaternal Care in the First 3 Years on Children’s Academic Skills and Behavioral Functioning in Childhood and Early Adolescence: A Sibling Comparison Study

“…In contrast, others have shown no effects of nonmaternal care experiences in the first 3 years on children’s peer interactions and personality development in early and middle childhood (Lamb, Hwang, Broberg, & Bookstein, 1988; Lamb et al., 1988; Wessels, Lamb, Hwang, & Broberg, 1997) or have shown that the earlier children entered nonmaternal care (Andersson, 1989; Rubenstein et al., 1981) or the more hours they spent in nonmaternal care in the 1st year (Field, Masi, Goldstein, Perry, & Parl, 1988), the better they scored on some measures of socioemotional and cognitive functioning. Again, effect sizes tended to be moderate to large in magnitude and sample sizes tended to be small.…”

“…Type of nonmaternal care. There is some evidence that the more time children spend in center‐based care relative to parental care (Loeb, Bridges, Bassok, Fuller, & Rumberger, 2007) or relative to any other kind of care (Belsky, 2001; Belsky et al., 2007), the more externalizing problems they have, though not all studies have identified this pattern (Hausfather et al., 1997; Wessels et al., 1997). A few studies have shown that type of nonmaternal care interacts with age of entry into nonmaternal care, but again, findings are inconsistent.…”

Socio‐emotional development: From infancy to young adulthood

“…In international comparisons Swedish day care appears to be of generally high quality due to factors such as teacher education, educational programs, localities, and equipment (Hwang & Broberg, 1992). Previous studies of non‐parental care in Sweden have shown either no differences between home‐reared children and children in non‐parental care or positive effects of such care regarding socio‐emotional development (Andersson, 1992; Wessels, Lamb, Hwang & Broberg, 1997).…”

Young Children's Psychological Selves: Convergence with Maternal Reports of Child Personality

“…The CCQ serves this function well as a great deal of research has confirmed the reliability and validity of this tool (e.g., Block, Block, & Morrison, 1981; Caspi et al., 1992; Dollinger, 1992; John, Caspi, Robins, Moffitt, & Stouthamer‐Loeber, 1994; Parker & Stumpf, 1998; Weir & Gjerde, 2002). Furthermore, this instrument has commonly been used with mothers as a way to assess child personality (e.g., Caspi et al., 1992; John et al., 1994; Wessels, Lamb, Hwang, & Broberg, 1997; van Aken & van Lieshout, 1991; van Lieshout, De Meyer, Curfs, & Fryns, 1998).…”