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Child care and cortisol across early childhood: context matters

Daniel Berry1, Clancy Blair2, Alexandra Ursache2

  • 1Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Developmental Psychology
|June 19, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Child care hours impact children's stress levels differently based on their environment. High-risk children show lower cortisol with more child care, while low-risk children show higher cortisol.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Development
  • Environmental Health

Background:

  • Child care experiences are linked to children's adrenocortical functioning.
  • Effects of child care can vary significantly for children in higher-risk environments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how cumulative environmental risk moderates the relationship between child care experiences and children's cortisol levels.
  • To examine the impact of child care quantity, quality, and type on adrenocortical functioning in relation to environmental risk.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of a large population-based sample of predominantly low-income rural families.
  • Assessment of children's child care experiences between 7-36 months and cortisol levels at 48 months.
  • Examination of the moderating role of cumulative environmental risk on the child care-cortisol relationship.

Main Results:

  • A crossover interaction was found between cumulative risk and child care quantity.
  • For low-risk children, more weekly child care hours predicted higher cortisol levels.
  • For high-risk children, more weekly child care hours predicted lower cortisol levels.

Conclusions:

  • The association between child care quantity and children's cortisol levels is dependent on the level of cumulative environmental risk.
  • Child care quality and type did not significantly predict cortisol levels or moderate the observed effects.
  • Children's broader ecological contexts are crucial in understanding the impact of child care on development.

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