The Big Debate: Is the expanded entitlement negatively impacting children who spend longer in nursery?

Jay Belsky, Emeritus Professor of Human Development at the University of California

As a retired academic who has studied the effects of childcare for more than 40 years, including time in the UK as director of research for the National Evaluation of Sure Start, I am struck by how distorted commentary on the subject can be.

Starting 35 years ago, I changed my tune as I saw the evidence changing, leading eventually to the observation that early, extensive and continuous non-familial care was associated with increased risk of attachment insecurity in infancy and problem behaviour between three and six years of age (Belsky, 1987, 2001). This emphasis on the quantity or amount of time spent in childcare beginning early in the first year on a full- or near full-time basis and continuing until school entry at around age five was not a popular conclusion to say the least. This was especially so because it made clear that all negative effects were not attributable to poor quality care (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003). Most of the relevant data came from the USA, but some was based on evidence from the UK and Canada as well.