Original Communication Effects of the Type of Childcare on Toddlers’ Motor, Social, Cognitive, and Language Skills Marco Bleiker, Anja Gampe, and Moritz M. Daum Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between type of childcare and toddlers’ skills in four important developmental domains: motor, cognitive, social, and language. A total of 637 children aged 18 and 24 months were either cared for exclusively at home by their parents or relatives (home-care group) or attended a daycare center for a minimum of 2 days per week (center-care group). We tested the children’s skills using standard assessment tools and compared the skills of the two care groups. The results suggest that, for the sample tested, childcare type is not related to toddler’s cognitive, motor, social, and language skills. Keywords: basic skills, education, early childhood, daycare The participation of women in the Swiss labor market has increased over the past decades. For example, 30 years ago, most mothers stayed at home after the birth of their first child; nowadays, more than half of all mothers work at least part-time. Accordingly, the demand for daycare centers for children aged 0 to 4 has increased steadily (Branger et al., 2008). It is therefore of major interest for parents and for society in general to assess whether or not different types of childcare (e.g., whether a child is primarily cared for at home by the parents [henceforth called home care] or (in addition) cared for at a daycare center [hence- forth called center care]) are related to children’s develop- ment. Despite a long history of childcare research focusing on the impact of parental care vs. center care on children, it is still a highly sensitive and controversial issue among the public. In particular, the public is not yet suffi- ciently aware of research results obtained in recent decades showing that, generally speaking and under normal circum- stances (but see below), nonparental childcare has no detri- mental effects on child development. Hence, this study serves to add further evidence to this field of research by focusing on the relationship between the type of childcare to the development of a variety of cognitive, motor, social, and language skills in young children living in Switzerland. 38.8% of all children aged 0 to 3 years in Switzerland attend a daycare center (Csonka & Mosimann, 2017). In the European Union, the average percentage of children attending daycare is comparable, but there are huge differ- ences among countries (e.g., in Denmark the rate is more than 65%, in Czech Republic less than 5%). A majority (51.3%) of the children in Switzerland who attend daycare spend 10–29 hours per week in center care, 35.6% spend 1–9 hours per week in center care, and 13.1% spend more than 29 hours per week in center care. The type of childcare depends on the type of household: 48.6% of children (aged 0–13) of single-parent mothers attend a daycare center, and 31.9% of children with two parents living together attend a daycare center. The percentage of children in center care when both parents are employed lies at about 40% for all employment types and combinations, regardless of whether both parents work full-time, one parent works part-time/one parent works full-time, or both parents work part-time. And 17.7% of children in households where one parent works full-time and the other is not employed attend center care (Csonka & Mosimann, 2017). The findings of previous research on the impact of type of childcare on skills development are inconsistent (Bäuerlein, Linkert, Stumpf, & Schneider, 2013; Clarke-Stewart & Miner, 2008). The major source of previous knowledge on the topic stems from a large longitudinal study con- ducted in the United States, the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), which started in 1991 and was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The SECCYD assessed the development of 1,000 children over a period of 15 years. Overall, the study found that children with non- maternal childcare (compared to children in exclusively maternal childcare) did not show significant differences in their development of motor, cognitive, language, and social skills (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Ó 2019 Hogrefe Swiss Journal of Psychology (2019), 78(3–4), 81–90 https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185/a000225 https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/pdf/10.1024/1421-0185/a000225 - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 12:46:22 AM - IP Address:54.226.179.206