Child Care Arrangements and Children's Functioning. A Comparison of Self-Care and Adult-Care Children

Abstract

Compared 26 4th-grade and 22 7th-grade self-care (latchkey) children with 26 4th-grade and 22 7th-grade matched children in adult care to investigate whether the latchkey arrangement has negative consequences for children. Ss were interviewed on demographic and childcare arrangement data and administered the Self-Esteem Inventory, the Personal Reaction Survey, and the Behavior Rating Form. There were no significant differences found between the 2 matched samples on any of the measures. Results suggest that the growing public and professional concern about the negative effects of self-care arrangements may not be warranted. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Full text

Developmental Psychology
1985,
Vol. 21, No-
3,
413-418Copyright
1
by
(he
American Psychological Association,
lac
0O12-1649/85/SO0.75
Child Care Arrangements
and
Children's Functioning:
A Comparison
of
Self-Care
and
Adult-Care Children
Hyman Rodman, David
J.
Pratto, and Rosemary Smith Nelson
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Forty-eight self-care children were compared with 48 matched children in adult
care to investigate whether the self-care ("latchkey") arrangement has negative
consequences for children. On several measures of children's social and psycho-
logical functioning, no significant differences were found between the two matched
samples. Virtually no research has been done on self-care, even though there are
large numbers of children involved. Growing public and policy concerns about
self-care suggest the need for much more research on the nature of the self-care
arrangement and its consequences.
Early research evidence that prolonged ab-
sence from
a
primary caregiver
has
negative
effects
on
young children's development
has
at times been carelessly generalized
to
child
care arrangements involving less prolonged
periods of absence. As
a
result, both day care
and maternal employment were suspect
in
the 1950s
and
1960s,
and the
self-care
("latchkey") arrangement for children became
suspect
in the
1970s. For example, Bronfen-
brenner (1976) has referred
to
"millions
. . .
of school-age youngsters, so-called 'latch-key*
children,
who
come home
to
empty houses
and who contribute
far out of
proportion
to
the ranks of pupils with academic and behav-
ior problems" (p.
17).
Until recently, concern about
the
impact
of child care
on
children has focused primar-
ily
on
formal arrangements
for
preschool
children.
The
arrangement that
has
received
the greatest public attention
and
research
effort
is
day care
for
preschool children (Bel-
sky & Steinberg, 1978; Etaugh, 1980; Rutter,
1981).
In
contrast, virtually
no
research
has
been carried out on the various informal care
We gratefully acknowledge
the
assistance
of the
Ford
Foundation
and the
William
T.
Grant Foundation
for
their support
of
the research,
of
Idalyn Brown and Kathy
Jackson
for
interviewing assistance,
of
Betty Harris
and
Rhoda Metzger
for
library
and
computer assistance,
and
of Herbert Costner
and
Garrett Lange
for
their helpful
comments
on an
earlier draft.
Requests
for
reprints should be sent
to
Hyman Rodman,
Department of Child Development and Family Relations,
University
of
North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina
27412.
arrangements
for
preschool
and
school-age
children, even though there
are far
more
children
in
such arrangements. For example,
in
1974
there were
1.8
million children
in
the United States between
the
ages
of
7
and
13 years who regularly cared
for
themselves
during out-of-school hours (U.S. Bureau
of
the Census, 1976); some current estimates
are much higher.1 This contrasts with
ap-
proximately 900,000 preschool children who
attended day care centers2 in 1976-1977 (U.S.
Department
of
Health
and
Human Services,
1980).
Not only
are
there more children
in
self-
care than
in day
care centers,
but
there
is
also
a
growing recognition of the importance
of the school-age years
for a
child's develop-
ment. Many professionals have recently
ex-
pressed strong concerns about the welfare
of
latchkey children (Genser
&
Baden,
1980;
Turkington, 1983). This concern runs ahead
of
the
available evidence.
We
could only
1
The
basis
for
some estimates
is not
given,
and
other
estimates
are
based
on
nonrepresentative samples;
it is
difficult
to
know what reliance
to
place
on the
statement
that "even conservative estimates
put the
hgure between
5
and 10
million" (Long
&
Long, 1983,
p. 24).
Child
care data collected
in 1979 by the U.S.
Bureau
of the
Census,
as a
supplement
to the
Survey
of
Income
and
Program Participation, unfortunately contain serious
er-
rors and cannot provide
a
reliable estimate of the number
of children
in
self-care (Gerald Gates, personal commu-
nication, November 1983).
3 The major focus
of
research
and
public concern
has
been
on
day care centers. Many other preschool children
are served
by
part-day nursery and kindergarten programs
(Dearman
&
Plisko, 1980; Kamerman, 1980).
413
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