Infant childcare settings and the development of gender‐specific adaptive behaviors

Abstract

In this study, we defined three distinct groups based on the infant’s principal childcare experience: infants reared exclusively at home by their mothers, infants reared in their own homes but by a non‐familial childcare provider, and infants reared in non‐familial homes in group care. At 4.5 years of age, we compared mothers’ and teachers’ independent views of the communication, daily living, socialization and motor adaptive behaviors of girls and boys with these different infant childcare histories, after taking multiple family selection factors into consideration. Boys who had other‐home‐group‐care in infancy expressed lower levels of overall adaptive functioning, as well as communication, daily living and socialization skills, than girls. Girls with other‐home‐group‐care in infancy had better adaptive daily living and socialization skills than girls who had maternal care. Different infant childcare experiences appear to predict different adaptive behaviors in boys and girls.

Keywords:

• Childcare experience
• Communication
• Daily living skills
• Socialization
• Motor development

Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. Gist and C. Varron for assistance. This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NICHD.