Provide Consistent and Loving Care

Providing consistent, loving care is about helping families negotiate separations in healthy ways as well as evaluating care conditions. Child care is one of the most central topics because of current economic pressures on families.

Center-type care in particular has raised many questions, and new findings from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) indicate that long-term results can be a mixed bag. Surprising new evidence about the role of child temperament provides new perspectives about child care. Additionally, four care scenarios were identified and relate to child outcomes and help us understand care from a more encompassing, ecological perspective. We gain further information about the impact that longer-term parental separations and absences can have on children, and in cases where military parents are deployed, we clearly see the challenges as well as the potential for healthy repair with the right information and support.