The latest report from the Growing Up In Scotland longitudinal research, which is following the lives of 5,000 babies and 3,000 toddlers throughout childhood, found that placing children aged 34 months in childcare for long periods had negative effects on their behaviour. The effect was most significant in girls and in children whose mothers were aged under 25 when their child was born.
However, being in childcare for between 17 and 40 hours per week was found to have a positive effect on children's cognitive abilities at 34 months, with girls in particular found to have more advanced vocabularies.
The research, conducted by the Scottish Centre for Social Research, also investigated the effects of being looked after by multiple childcare providers. It found that, for children aged up to 12 months, 27 per cent of families using childcare used two providers and 4 per cent used three or more. However, this 'childcare fragmentation' had no adverse impact on child cognitive development at 34 months.
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