Formal child care for toddlers of depressed mothers may have positive benefits for the child’s subsequent behaviour, University of Adelaide researchers have found.
Mothers of 438 children completed questionnaires during the children’s infancy, in toddlerhood, and at the age of 5 years.
As little as half a day in formal child care at the age of two years significantly modified the effect of the mother’s depressive symptoms on the child’s behaviour. Informal child care in toddlerhood did not significantly affect child behaviour problems.
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