Development of children living in conditions of psychosocial risk: Could child care services make a difference?
We examine how families utilize child care services in relation to their levels of psychosocial risk factors. We subsequently look for the presence of connections between the quality of development of children and attendance at various types of child care services. To achieve this, we have used the last two data collections of the evaluation of the 1, 2, 3 GO! Initiative. The sample consists of 978 children and their families originating from urban (n = 362), suburban (n = 431) and rural (n = 185) areas. Children in the sample are between 20 and 42 months of age. The mental development of children (Bayley, 1993) and the socio-demographic characteristics of families were measured. Furthermore, parents completed a questionnaire on the child care service attended by their child. Results indicate that more children are exposed to concurrent risk factors (low-level of education, single parenting and poverty), the lower will be their scores of mental development. Results also show that children attending a structured child care service (i.e. center daycare, family daycare) have significantly higher scores on the mental development scale (Bayley, 1993) than children attending a less structured child care service (i.e. drop-in center, someone close to the family) or not attending any child care service. Moreover, results indicate that experiences from child care services benefited all children, regardless of the levels of psychosocial risk factors. The discussion considers the consequences of these results for children and their family and emphasizes the importance of adjusting the child care services offered to vulnerable children.