FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Children who spend a substantial amount of time in pre-school day care exhibit higher levels of academic readiness, more behavioral problems and lower levels of self-control in kindergarten and first grade than children who spend less time in non-parental care, concludes two University of Arkansas researchers.

Gary Ritter, assistant professor of education policy, and Ronna Turner, assistant professor of education, leadership, counseling and foundations, examined statistics gathered by the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-K) database on approximately 17,000 students who were assessed from nearly 900 kindergarten programs and again in first grade.

Ritter and Turner sought to test the hypothesis presented by Jay Belsky with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that children who spent more time in non-parental care early on are more likely to be more academically prepared but less well-behaved in school.

They broke down pre-school care into several different categories: parental care, center-based care, Head Start programs, in-home care by a caregiver and other care. They also broke down the hours spent in non-parental care into none, less than 10 hours, 10 to 30 hours and more than 30 hours. And they looked at the age at which children entered non-parental care.

Teachers and parents of children in the study were asked to assess aspects of the children’s behavior in the fall of kindergarten and the spring of first grade. They were asked to look at approaches to learning, self-control, interpersonal skills, externalizing problem behaviors and internalizing problem behaviors.

The researchers found that children in formal day care for more than 30 hours a week and children who entered non-parental care before age one exhibited the highest tendency to externalize behaviors when compared to students who spent less time in day care. This effect held true for students in kindergarten and first grade.

Children who spent from one to 10 hours a week in outside care had the best test scores and the best behavior, slightly above that of children who remained in parental care full time.

The study also found that students in day care situations performed better on kindergarten reading and math tests than did their stay-at-home counterparts.

"In sum, kids in more formal day care were more prepared cognitively and more troubled behaviorally when they entered kindergarten than kids in parental care," Ritter said.

"However, the differences in academic performance at the beginning of kindergarten diminished by the end of first grade," Turner said.

Ritter and Turner stipulate that the study leaves many open questions to pursue, including the meaning of these statistically significant findings. Do the behavioral differences translate into children in need of lots of help or into a child who needs a few well-directed words to help point him or her in the right direction? Although the study does not address this, it does provide a starting point for doing so. The researchers are continuing to examine the database to understand these issues more fully.