Study: Children with more hours of child care act more ag...( wed to 17 percent vs. 9 percent. High...),Health

Higher quality care corresponded with fewer problem behaviors, the study showed. Center care during infancy was not linked to either positive or negative trends among participating children. Children who watched more television scored lower on tests of mathematical reasoning and vocabulary and displayed more behavior problems.

Most subjects, who are from racially and socially diverse families, now are in the third and fourth grades and will be followed at least through the sixth. Analyses have now been completed and reported for ages 6, 15, 24, 36 and 54 months.

Investigators consider their sample reasonably but not perfectly representative of U.S. children, Cox said. Strengths of the study include its large sample size, the repeated direct assessments and the diversity of subjects, a quarter of whom are minorities.

Besides UNC, which follows 130 children, other data collection centers are located at the universities of Arkansas at Little Rock, California at Irvine, Kansas, New Hampshire, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Washington at Seattle and Wisconsin and Temple University. Research Triangle Institute staff in Research Triangle Park, N.C., also participates in the project.

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Contact: David Williamson
David_Williamson@unc.edu
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
18-Apr-2001