Regularly attending child care may have numerous developmental benefits for children who live in chaotic, disorganized home environments, suggests a new study.
Numerous studies have linked chaotic households - homes that are overcrowded, noisy, unclean and lacking predictable routines - with low academic achievement and attention, social and behavioral problems among children in poverty.
Children from chaotic homes who spent more time in child care during infancy and early childhood experienced better cognitive, emotional and social development than peers from similar home environments who attended fewer hours of weekly child care, the researchers in the current study found.
More than 1,200 children from predominantly low-income families in rural Appalachia and North Carolina participated in the research, led by developmental psychologist Daniel Berry of the University of Illinois.
Berry and his co-authors tracked the children's development from the age of 7 months to 5 years, observing children's interactions with their primary caregiver at home and with their caregivers in child-care centers or other settings.
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