Quantity of nonmaternal care and boys' problem behavior/adjustment at ages3 and 5: Exploring the mediating role of parenting

TO EXAMINE the effects of quantity of nonmaternal care across the first 3 a nd 5 years of life on problem behavior and affective-cognitive indices of a djustment, and to test the hypotheses that parenting mediates effects of no nmaternal care, 120 working- and middle-class, two-parent Caucasian familie s rearing firstborn sons were studied. More time in nonmaternal care across the first 3 and 5 years predicted more mother-reported externalizing probl ems when children were ages 3 and 5 (and somewhat more father-reported exte rnalizing problems at age 5), as well as more negative mothering and less p ositive fathering during the toddler years. Effects of nonmaternal care on externalizing problems became insignificant once observed parenting was con trolled, thereby providing evidence of the mediational effects of parenting . More time in nonmaternal care across the first 5 years predicted more neg ative adjustment on a composite lab-based measure of affective-cognitive fu nctioning at age 5 (e.g., attributional bias, social problem solving, prefe rence for negative story plots), and this effect was only modestly attenuat ed upon controlling for parenting. Results are discussed in terms of relate d research and the current context of child care in America.