Is it a good idea to put a child into nonparental care, such as day care? What effects could this possibly have on the attachment, and under what circumstances?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Although many have jobs they enjoy and that give them a sense of identity and feelings of accomplishment, their paychecks are necessary because their partners’ salaries are too low support a family, their partners are unemployed, or the woman is the head of the household. One concern regarding the use of nonmaternal child care is that the quality of the child’s attachment to the mother might suffer. When caregivers provide consistent positive care young children do, in fact, become securely attached to those caregivers (De Schipper, Tavecchio, & Van IJzendoorn, 2008), but nonparental child care has not been associated with insecure attachment to mothers (Friedman & Boyle, 2008). This suggests that children do not need exclusive contact with parents for a secure attachment to form. Although the effects may not be long lasting, it certainly is better when young children have access to high quality, stable child care.