Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were used in this investigation, because they include repeated measures of child care experiences, externalizing behavior, and family characteristics. There were three main findings. First, the evidence linking child care hours with externalizing behavior was equivocal in that results varied across model specifications. Second, the association between child care hours and externalizing behavior was not due to a child effect. Third, child care quality and proportion of time spent with a large group of peers moderated the effects of child care hours on externalizing behavior. Child care hours was more strongly related to externalizing behavior when children were in low-quality child careand when children spent a greater proportion of time with a large group of peers. The magnitude of associations between child care hours and externalizing behavior was modest. Implications for parents and policymakers must take into account that externalizing behavior is predicted from a constellation of variables in multiple contexts. TIME IN CHILD CARE Testing a Series of Causal Propositions Relating Time in Child Care to Children's Externalizing BehaviorReviewers of the literature on early child care have frequently noted an association between spending more time in child care and exhibiting more externalizing behavior, such as assertive, disobedient, and aggressive acts (Belsky, 1986;2001;Clarke-Stewart & Fein, 1983).Longitudinal investigations of externalizing problems indicate that these behaviors often persist into elementary school (Campbell, 1995(Campbell, , 2002Campbell, Pierce, Moore, Marakovitz, & Newby, 1996;Verhulst & Van der Ende, 1992) and that elevated levels of externalizing problems are accompanied by peer rejection and poor academic performance (Campbell, 2002;Farmer & Bierman, 2002). Behavior problems can interfere with a child's acquisition of age-appropriate skills (Campbell, 2002), potentially leading to antisocial behavior in adolescence (Zahn-Waxler, Usher, Suomi, & Cole, 2005) and adulthood (Levenston, 2002). Even though child care experience has not been linked to clinical levels of problems, researchers and policymakers have worried that extensive use of child care in the early years might be a risk factor for increasing problem behaviors without causing clinical problems.Studies have demonstrated that children exhibit more of these negative behaviors if they spend more time in care before they enter kindergarten (Bates, Marvinney, Kelly, Dodge, Bennett, & Pettit, 1994;Magnuson, Meyers, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004;Vandell & Corasaniti, 1990), are in more hours of care in the first year of life (Hofferth, 1999), start care at younger ages, or spend more hours there each day (Loeb, Bridges, Bassok, Fuller, & Rumberger, 2007).In the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), associations were documented between the amount of time children had spent in child care and externalizing behavior at 24 months of age (NICHD Early C...

Routine child care by grandparents was examined for 1,229 children who were participants in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care. Four groups were identified: extended full‐time care, extended part‐time care, sporadic care, and no routine care during the first three years. The odds of sporadic child care by grandparents were higher when mothers were relatively young and worked nonstandard hours. The odds of extended full‐time grandparent care versus extended part‐time grandparent care were higher for mothers of color and mothers with more extensive full‐time employment. All types of grandparent care were more likely when a grandparent lived in the household. These findings suggest that grandparent care is heterogeneous and may occur in response to different family circumstances.

There are meaningful associations between attachment insecurity and behavior problems as assessed not only by mothers but also by caregivers.

No abstract

When an adult is suspected of sexually abusing a child, in most states a report is made to county child abuse registries and then referred to a social worker and police for investigation. A key part of these investigations is an interview with the child who is the alleged victim. The belief that children are susceptible to suggestions made by adult interrogators has raised apprehension about the accuracy of information obtained from children during such interviews. Similar concerns have been voiced about the credibility of children who testify in court after extensive "preparation" by authorities. Some fear that the use of leading questioning by legal and mental health professionals is resulting in false allegations of abuse and consequently prosecution and conviction of innocent adults. Others claim that children do not report abuse readily and that leading questioning may be necessary to facilitate children's disclosures.Despite strong claims by both sides, ecologically valid and scientifically sound research to determine whether, when, and to what extent children's testimony in such cases is accurate or is influenced by suggestive questioning has been virtually nonexistent. Instead, most research on children as eyewitnesses has relied on situations that are very different from the personal involvement and 92