Child care and mother-child interaction in the first 3 years of life

Relations between nonmaternal child care and ratings of maternal sensitivit y and child positive engagement during mother-child interaction at 6, 15, 2 4, and 36 months were examined for 1,274 mothers and their children partici pating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIC HD) Study of Early Child Care. In longitudinal analyses that controlled for selection, child, and family predictors, child care was a small but signif icant predictor of maternal sensitivity and child engagement. For the whole sample, including families who did and did not use child care, more hours of child care predicted less maternal sensitivity and less positive child e ngagement. For children who were observed in child care, higher quality chi ld care predicted greater maternal sensitivity, and more child-care hours p redicted less child engagement. The effects of child care on mother-child i nteraction were much smaller in the analytical models than the effects of m aternal education but were similar in size to the effects of maternal depre ssion and child difficult temperament. Patterns of association with child c are did not differ significantly across ages of assessment.