Effects Of Home & Out-of-home Care In Child Development

这项研究计划涉及在哥德堡（瑞典）和柏林（德国）的儿童对比或独特的儿童保育经验的短期和长期的纵向研究。瑞典的纵向研究包括145名儿童，他们于1982年招募，平均年龄为16个月。家庭和替代照料的质量对儿童的语言能力、社会技能和个人成熟度没有明显影响，因为儿童进入正规教育系统，他们的个性开始影响对学校的适应。纵向分析显示，随着时间的推移，他们的人格风格相当稳定，尽管随着年龄的增长，孩子们变得不那么外向，更随和，更有责任心，更自我控制。随着时间的推移，男孩的自我弹性水平比女孩更稳定;男孩从童年中期到青春期中期变得不那么有弹性，而女孩在进入青春期时变得更加自我弹性。2003年，研究人员开始联系参与者，评估他们20岁时的状况。在柏林的纵向研究中，在适应阶段，母亲与15个月大的幼儿留在中心，依赖性婴儿的皮质醇水平明显低于不安全的婴儿。当母亲不再与婴儿呆在一起时，依赖性幼儿的皮质醇反应比不依赖性幼儿的反应要剧烈得多。安全的幼儿在分离时也比不安全的幼儿更大惊小怪/哭泣。皮质醇和行为标记的痛苦相关的安全重视，但不安全重视幼儿。当母亲和蹒跚学步的孩子在儿童保育机构呆得更久时，孩子们更有可能变得或保持安全。目前正在对反应性和痛苦的心脏指标进行比较分析。

This program of research involves short- and long-term longitudinal studies in Goteborg (Sweden) and Berlin (Germany) of children with contrasting or distinctive child care experiences. The longitudinal study in Sweden includes 145 children recruited in 1982 at an average age of 16 months. The quality of home and alternative care had little apparent effect on the children's verbal abilities, social skills, and personal maturity as the children moved into the formal educational system and their individual personalities came to affect the adjustment to school. Longitudinal analyses revealed substantial stability over time in their personality styles, although children became less extraverted, more agreeable, more conscientious and more ego-controlled with age. Boys' levels of ego resiliency were more stable over time than girls'; boys became less resilient from middle childhood into mid adolescence, whereas girls became more ego resilient as they entered adolescence. In 2003, researchers began contacting participants to assess their status at age 20. In the Berlin longitudinal study, mothers remained in the centers with their 15-month-old toddlers during an adaptation phase and securely-attached infants had markedly lower cortisol levels than insecure infants. When the mothers stopped remaining with their infants, the cortisol responses of the securely-attached toddlers were much more dramatic than the responses of the insecurely attached toddlers. Secure toddlers also fussed/cried upon separation more than insecurely attached toddlers. Cortisol and behavioral markers of distress were correlated in securely attached but not in insecurely attached toddlers. Attachments were more likely to become or remain secure when mothers remained longer in the child care facilities with their toddlers. Comparable analyses concerned with cardiac measures of reactivity and distress are currently under way.