Early or Later DayCare

The Britishpsychoanalyst John Bowiby maintains that separation from the parents during thesensitive "attachment"period from birth to three may scar a child'spersonality

and predispose toemotional problems in later life.Some people have drawn the conclusion fromBowlby's work that children should not be subjected to day care before the

age of three becauseof the parental separation it entails,and many people do believe this.But thereare also arguments against such a strong conclusion.

Firstly,anthropologistspoint out that the insulated love affair between children and parents found inmodern societies does not usually exist in traditional societies.For

example,in sometribal societies,such as the Ngoni,the father and mother of a child did notrear their infant alone-far from it.Secondly,common sense tells us that day care

would not be sowidespread today if parents,care-takers found children had problems withit.Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out,and even ifthey

were,the resultswould be certain to be complicated and controversial.Thirdly,in the last decadethere have been a number of careful American studies of children in day

care,and they haveuniformly reported that day care had a neutral or slightly positive effect onchildren's development.But tests that have had to be used to measure this

development are notwidely enough accepted to settle the issue.

But Bowlby'sanalysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects.Thepossibility that such care might lead to,say,more mental illness or crime 15 or20 years

later can only beexplored by the use of statistics.Whatever the long-term effects,parentssometimes find the immediate effects difficult to deal with.Children underthree are

likely to protest atleaving their parents and show unhappiness.At the age of three or three and ahalf almost all children find the transition to nursery easy,and this is

undoubtedly why moreand more parents make use of child care at this time.The matter,then,is farfrom clear-cut, though experience and available evidence indicate that early

care is reasonablefor infants.

Which of thefollowing statements would Bowiby support?

A.Statisticalstudies should be carried out to assess the positive.effect of day care forchildren at the age of three or older.

B.Early day care candelay the occurrence of mental illness in children.

C.The first threeyears of one's life is extremely important to the later development ofpersonality.

D.Children underthree get used to the life at nursery schools more readily than children overthree.