psychology 12 marker on effects of day care

Hi, I was just wondering if any of you would be able to give an estimated mark on my response for this 12 mark question:
'Outline and evaluate research into the effects of day care on children's social development'

Here is my response:
Much research has been done to investigate the effects of day care on children s social development. For example Clarke-Stewart carried out a study on 150 infants. They found that children who had been inn day care had better social interaction and dinnertime obedience, compared to a control group who were raised at home.

In addition to that another study showing the positive impact of day care is Field who showed that the amount of time spent in day care is positively correlated to the amount of friends the child has. This suggests that peer relations are benefited from day care.

However a weakness of Fields study is that it is correlational. It merely shows that there may be a link, but a direct cause and effect cannot be justified. For example it may be due to specific characteristics (individual differences) that lead the children to have more friends, not the fact that they have been in day care.

A study relating day care to aggression is the NICHD study. This research is longitudinal and was carried out on 1000 American infants. They found that the more time the infants spent in day care, the more they were rated aggressive by teachers or parents, compared to a control group of children that were raised at home.

A strength of this study is that it is longitudinal meaning the same group have been studied over a long period of time. Therefore their behavior can be carefully recorded as it develops. Despite this a weakness of a longitudinal study is that the long period of time needed results in many of the pps dropping out, As a result the pps that are left may show certain characteristics (more aggressive behavior) than the original sample. Therefore the findings are no longer applicable to the original sample.

Also another weakness is that the reports were collected from parents or teachers. The parents may not want to show their children off in a negative light so may show social desirability and not score them as aggressive when they are clearly showing aggressive behavior. Therefore these results may not be valid.


Any comments would be greatly appreciated!!