Child care can help 'difficult homes'

DENVER, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Children from homes lacking good parent-child interactions may benefit from high-quality child care, a U.S. researcher says.

Sarah Enos Watamura of the University of Denver suggests experiencing high-quality child care may offer children from difficult backgrounds more positive models of expressing themselves and interacting with the world. This safe space seems to help protect young children from developing anxious, aggressive behaviors.

Enos Watamura led investigators from several universities who confirm children from "difficult homes" do have more social and emotional problems -- including being fearful and behaving disruptively -- than children from "supportive homes."

The study, published in Child Development, finds enrollment in high-quality child care helps make up for home environment disadvantages. Both home and care environments were rated by trained on-site observers.

"This pattern of findings is consistent with existing evidence that the quality of child care that young children experience may matter more for those from more disadvantaged home environments," Enos Watamura says in a statement. "The study also confirms the importance of integrating early intervention strategies and policies across home and child care environments."

Enos Watamura and colleagues base their study on data from a large-scale longitudinal survey that tracked children from birth through their middle-school years.