Childcare

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Lessons from the Longest Study on Human Development "Parents really matter. In this study, children who had engaged interested parents, ones who had ambitions for their future, were more likely to escape from a difficult start.	Parental leave would cause a boom in breastfeeding "Only 12 percent of U.S. firms offer paid maternity leave, while a national parental leave policy would likely require businesses to give new mothers six weeks of paid time off.
Parents should stress less and enjoy their children more "Caregivers that are sensitive, and have playful, positive interactions with their babies are helping to promote positive social-emotional development," Rogers told CafeMom.	Developing resilience in children "The most recent statistics collected by the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (2015) of State College students found that, “The most common depressed thought was “at times I think I am no good at all,” reported by 26.7 percent of students in this... read more
Understanding Shame, part 4: Growing up shame-based Shame is experienced as a passing emotion in almost everybody. It exists to tell us that we are at risk of losing important social relationships, or that we might be thrown out of our group.	Attached Family: Parenting Without Shame
On Your Mark, Give Birth, Go Back To Work "Olson and her husband discussed the possibility of her switching jobs.	A Pediatrician's View Of Paid Parental Leave "Research tells us that infancy is a critical period for health and child development. In the first year or two of life, 700 new synapses are forming every second in the child's brain.
Each day of our lives... "Each day of our lives, we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." Share this meme on API's blog or Facebook page.	Leisure Time At Home May Be Best Path to Happy Family "Family fun often means new activities and destinations but a new study suggests leisure time spent at home in familiar pastimes may be a better route to happiness.

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Journal Studies

Double Jeopardy: Poorer Social-Emotional Outcomes for Children in the NICHD SECCYD Experiencing Home and Child-Care Environments That Confer Risk Watamura, S. E., Phillips, D. A., Morrissey, T. W., McCartney, K., & Bub, K. (2011). Double Jeopardy: Poorer Social-Emotional Outcomes for Children in the NICHD SECCYD Experiencing Home and Child-Care Environments That Confer Risk. Child Development, 82(1), 48-65. Regardless of the quality of non-parental child care, children from low-quality home environments had more behavioral problems and children from high-quality homes had fewer behavioral problems.	Do Effects of Early Child Care Extend to Age 15 Years? Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development Vandell, D. L., Belsky, J., Burchinal, M., Steinberg, L., & Vandergrift, N. (2010). Do effects of early child care extend to age 15 Years? Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Child Development, 81(3), 737-756. While high-quality child care was predictive of greater pre-academic skills, children who spent more time in non-parental child care, especially in center-type care, tended to have more behavior problems that continued into adolescence.
Differential Susceptibility to Parenting and Quality Child Care Pluess, M., & Belsky, J. (2010). Differential susceptibility to parenting and quality child care. Developmental Psychology, 46(2), 379-390. High-quality parenting was predictive of greater academic and social skills for all children, but particularly children with a difficult temperament. In addition, high-quality non-parental child care predicted fewer behavioral problems in children with difficult temperaments.	Patterns of Developmental Change in Infants’ Nighttime Sleep Awakenings from 6 through 36 Months of Age Weinraub, M., Bender, R. H., Friedman, S. L., Susman, E. J., Knoke, B., Bradley, R., ... & Williams, J. (2012). Patterns of Developmental Change in Infants’ Nighttime Sleep Awakenings from 6 through 36 Months of Age. Developmental Psychology, 48(6),1511-1528. Infants with night-wakings were more likely to be boys, be breastfed, have a difficult temperament, come from a large family, have a depressed mother, be in a single-parent home, and/or attend fewer hours of non-parental child care; however, this tendency for more night-wakings tended to resolve by 18 months.
Cross Cultural Differences in Toddler and Infant Sleep Mindell, J. A., Sadeh, A., Wiegand, B., How, T. H., & Goh, D. Y. (2010). Cross-cultural differences in infant and toddler sleep. Sleep Medicine, 11(3), 274-280. Child sleep problems are based more on culturally-influenced parental perceptions than actual biological reasons, and nighttime sleep issues tended to be perceived more problematic than daytime naps.	Normal Sleep Patterns in Infants and Children: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies Galland, B. C., Taylor, B. J., Elder, D. E., & Herbison, P. (2012). Normal sleep patterns in infants and children: A systematic review of observational studies. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 16(3), 213-222. More research is needed to identify normal sleep patterns in breastfed versus bottle-fed infants, in toddlers, on weekdays versus weekends, and as related to gender and ethnic differences. What is known is that children sleep longer at night and experience fewer night-wakings and daytime naps as they develop.
Breastfeeding May Improve Nocturnal Sleep and Reduce Infantile Colic: Potential Role of Breast Milk Melatonin Engler, A. C., Hadash, A., Shehadeh, N., & Pillar, G. (2012). Breastfeeding may improve nocturnal sleep and reduce infantile colic: potential role of breast milk melatonin. European Journal of Pediatrics, 171(4), 729-732. Exclusively breastfed infants had less colic and fussiness, and slept longer. Melatonin, which promotes sleep, available only in breastmilk, showed a clear relationship to infant sleep patterns.	Childhood Sleep Duration and Associated Demographic Characteristics in an English Cohort Blair, P. S., Humphreys, J. S., Gringras, P., Taheri, S., Scott, N., Emond, A., ... & Fleming, P. J. (2012). Childhood sleep duration and associated demographic characteristics in an English cohort. Sleep, 35(3), 353-360. More research is needed to identify what is normal when it comes to child sleep. Some of what is known is that children need longer nighttime sleep until about 9 years old. By school age, most children sleep through the night, but children up to 3 1/2 years old continue to wake at least once. Low birth-weight and pre-term infants sleep more. Infants of younger mother sleep more. All infants sleep longer at night, wake multiple times at night, and sleep longer daytime naps than young children who mostly stop taking naps by 5 years old. Girls sleep longer than boys. Children with siblings sleep less.
A Longitudinal Investigation of Maternal Touching Across the First 6 Months of Life: Age and Context Effects Jean, A. D., Stack, D. M., & Fogel, A. (2009). A longitudinal investigation of maternal touching across the first 6 months of life: Age and context effects. Infant Behavior and Development, 32(3), 344-349. As infants grew older, mothers provided less nurturing touch, patting and stroking but more tickling and static touch.	Touch for Socioemotional and Physical Well-Being: A Review Field, T. (2010). Touch for socioemotional and physical well-being: A review. Developmental Review, 30(4), 367-383. Touch is needed for social-emotional and physical development and well-being. In addition, there are therapeutic benefits of massage.