Emanuel Miller Lecture - Developmental risks (still) associated with earlychild care

In the mid to late 1980s a major controversy erupted when Belsky's (1986, 1 988, 1990) analysis of research produced the conclusion that early and exte nsive nonmaternal care carried risks in terms of increasing the probability of insecure infant-parent attachment relationships and promoting aggressio n and noncompliance during the toddler, preschool, and early primary school years. Widespread critiques of Belsky's analysis called attention to probl ems associated with the Strange Situation procedure for measuring attachmen t security in the case of day-care reared children and to the failure of mu ch of the cited research to take into consideration child-care quality and control for background factors likely to make children with varying child-c are experiences developmentally different in the first place. In this lectu re, research concerning the, developmental effects of child care and matern al employment initiated in the first year of life that has emerged since th e controversy broke is reviewed. Evidence indicating that early, extensive, and continuous nonmaternal care is associated with less harmonious parent- child relations and elevated levels of aggression and noncompliance suggest s that concerns raised about early and extensive child care 15 years ago re main valid and that alternative explanations of Belsky's originally controv ersial conclusion do not account for seemingly adverse effects of routine n onmaternal care that continue to be reported in the literature.