Working parents maintain strong bonds with children

Young mothers who return to work after giving birth, should not worry about their child developing a stronger bond with the nanny or others at home than with her. Researchers from the Free University of Berlin found that despite mother's long hours at the office, children are much more likely to form secure relationships with them and their father, than they do with their day care provider. To investigate the researchers reviewed data from 40 studies that assessed child-parent and child-childcare provider relationships for nearly 2,867 largely pre-school age children from diverse backgrounds. Half of the children were girls and 54 percent were newborns. Of the 40 studies, 23 involved children in daycare centres, 5 involved children in home-based care and the remaining 12 included children cared for in both settings.Significant similarities were found in how young children feel about their parents (both mothers and fathers) and their care provider. It was clear that young children develop close relationships with their primary non-parental care providers. However, some significant differences were also found in child-parent and childcare provider relationships. For example, secure attachments are much more common between children and their parents than between children and their daycare provider. Girls were more apt to develop secure relationships with the person looking after them than boys.Overall, children cared for at home by a non-parental care provider are more likely to form secure attachments with the provider than those cared for by a provider in a childcare facility. For those in a daycare facility, the longer the children attended, the more likely they were to have a secure relationship with the care providers. The findings suggest that how children feel about their care provider is strongly related to how the provider acts towards the entire group of children rather than to an individual child.Given the growing evidence that relationships with care providers have an important impact on children's development, the findings point that these relationships are most likely to affect children's behavioural and socio-emotional functioning later, in the most positive way.