to considering doing my dissertation on whether nursery care is harmful for young babies?

[purepurple]

I don't want to start a fight but have been mulling over ideas for my dissertation for my early childhood degree and came across this report by unicef www.unicef-irc.org/publications/507 and wonder if it would be a worthwhile subject.
I am interested in attachment theory and also the pressures that modern day families face when choosing when to have children and what to do for the best. I am also interested in brain development and can see that all 3 areas are covered in the report.
Any opinions?

[smelli]

I also think your title implies you have already made your conclusions. You might want to start with a more objective - maybe something about the positive and negative effects of nurseries on young babies.

[magicmelons]

Tbh, I know loads and loads of people and I don't know anybody who has a 3 month old in ft nursery, I know one or 2 people with older children in ft nursery but one of those is a single parent. I think these days mist people I know cobble together childcare between working less day, family and nurseries a couple of others use an au pair and nursery so as their children don't spend too much time in nursery. I'd like to know the statistic's, how many small babies less than 9 months are in ft childcare or rather nursery.

[AnnieLobeseder]

Ah, there's another potential topic - the type of childcare settings people choose based on the age of the child. Are childminders more popular with parents with young babies (my DD1 was with one from 4mo to 1yo) and nurseries more popular for older children? - that type of thing....

[rattie77]

I actually done a similar dissertation for my MA and agree with some of the earlier posts that suggest that the topic is too large for undergrauate level, as I struggled to narrow it down - it is a huge area. If you want to discuss this - please feel free to email me.

[scottishmummy]

you're not starting from an objective stance
you're language is emotive "pressures that modern day families face" - have you considered for some there is no pressure and nursery is an active choice
how do you quantify harmful
how will you gather date, get representative samples
what nurseries will consent to this

[scottishmummy]

if youre dead set on this biddulph et al do a nice line in pish poor research

[hairfullofsnakes]

It's actually bemusing how volatile some people are on here about my own personal opinion on babies and that I feel the best place for them is with their mum... All the 'do shut ups' and 'your opinion makes me sick'

well I still think that for a baby there is no better place to be than with their mum, Im not asking anyone to agree and I do disagree with the opinion that 'as long as a baby is fed, changed, cuddled, it doesn't matter who does it'. Each to their own but I shall never think it is right for a little baby to be away from their mum (or main carer) all day, every day.

[5DollarShake]

It's probably still well beyond the scope of a 10,000-word under-grad thesis, but some sort of comparative dissertation on childcare in different countries could be really interesting.

F'instance, it is totally the norm for babies to be in full-time nursery care from 2-3 months of age in the US since they barely get any maternity leave. And what they do get is pretty much unpaid.

Would be interesting to know if that country is churning out 'harmed' children by the barrel-full.

FWIW nursery care isn't for me or mine, but I wouldn't knock anyone who chose or had to use it. And yes, your suggested title in your OP is decidedly subjective and does sound like you've drawn your own conclusions before you've even embarked on the research...

[nooka]

For the OP, the best advice I was ever given on writing a dissertation was make it as small and easy as possible. Ideally know the answer in advance. Make sure that there is plenty of good quality accessible research for your literature study. Be really clear on where you are going to get your own data from and above all don't be ambitious. An undergraduate dissertation is primarily about demonstrating your research skills, and only secondarily about any findings you might make.

When I did my degree I chose a dissertation subject that I thought would be really interesting, and I was really pleased that my tutor thought so too (this woudl now be a big red flag for me). It was a stupidly large topic to try and bit off, and I found out far too late that all the source materials and related literature were either in Arabic or French, neither of which I can read. It was incredibly stressful and I did not do very well.

For my masters I chose something which I already knew a lot about, and where essentially I was just playing with data (lots of nice graphs) and where the research was already good. I can't say it was particularly fun, but it wasn't nearly as hard and I got a good grade. There were a few nuggets in there (the team I worked in later published a short paper in the BMJ which included some of my work) but nothing groundbreaking.

I really think you would do better to take the latter approach. Oh, and you really need to base your thinking on original research not on people who make stuff up and cherry pick like Biddulf. Unless you want to do your research on child care 'gurus'.

[purepurple]

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and good advice. I so need to narrow it down. I haven't made up my mind on whether small babies should be in fulltime day care at all, so I'm not interested in knocking anybody's choices.
I will speak to my dissertation supervisor when I get one. My course starts in September and my proposal has to be submitted by 30th September.
I am just in a bit of a panic as I will have so much reading to do, if only I knew what to read
I now know that I should
pick a simple subject
already know the answer in advance
not be too ambitious
be able to get my own data
use respected research

Off to do some research

[tryingtoleave]

After having read this thread, I think an interesting topic might be looking at the constraints on research into nurseries. Academics are afraid to touch this topic because of the defensive response it provokes.

More helpfully (hopefully), I'm sure you could find a more discrete topic. You could look at how children settle into childcare, what factors make it easier or harder. That would be research that could be done in a short time and there is already some research on the topic that you could compare your findings to.

Have a look at Anne Manne's book, Motherhood. It canvasses a lot of the research, tries to approach it from a stance of 'maternal feminism'. I think it's a great read.

[RitaMorgan]

I'm surprised by how aggressive people are towards the OP for even daring to think about the effect of nursery on babies!

[lynehamrose]

I disagree Rita. I think parents invest a lot of effort in thinking about how various decisions will impact on their child. Its just a bit. Boring when people bang on about nurseries as though they are inherently bad, or at any rate less good than being with mother all day. And I think most people have been critical of the op more about her lack of basic knowledge rather than anything else. For Someone about to embark on research, its a bit surprising that she doesn't realise that her proposal is extremely biased, and also her basic facts are incorrect- babies are not starting in childcare younger and younger- maternity leave ionger now than ever before, so in fact most children start later

[RitaMorgan]

She hasn't embarked on research - she is pondering what to do. She is considering doing her dissertation on whether nursery is harmful.

If we have to pretend nursery is perfect to avoid making anyone feel guilty then care will never improve for the babies who are experiencing it.

[lynehamrose]

Erm... Researching whether nursery is HARMFUL does show bias. Researching the EFFECTS of nursery is unbiased. Pretty basic stuff really.
Anyway, as most people seem to have agreed, it would be a completely inappropriate study for the op to attempt, as a properly conducted logitudinal study would take a lot of manpower, a lot of years, and a rigorous and knowledgeable approach to research

[lynehamrose]

Longitudinal

[DuelingFanjo]

Rita, nurseries aren't perfect, nor are most parents.

[purepurple]

Good point, DF, how can we make the most of the imperfect world we live in? How to build resilience in children..............
That would be a better subject.

[MurphyWasAnOptimist]

If you can purepurple, I'd strongly recommend looking at secondary data. Collecting your own data properly is so time consuming. If you use someone else's data you'll have the time to do a much richer analysis.

[nannynick]

Do you have to collect your own data, or can you use data sources such as Government statistics? If so, then could you use that data, then interview people to see if the data actually matches what people feel is happening in reality.

[FlyingStart]

Alternatively, you could write about the EYFS and the recent review, and whether Dame Tickell's recommendations valid and in what way.

I do champion the SAHM option, but I strongly agree with sammich Sun 29-May-11 21:24:08 post's. I do think that undertaking a childcare course whilst touting the opinion that early years nurseries are harmful to babies is a little odd.

Although I no longer have a baby - my babies are all school age now (gosh, that was hard to type....) - I would be very uneasy if the staff at the nursery my children had attended thought their care was harmful, IYSWIM.

[Highlander]

steer clear - htat's more of a PhD-level study.

Why don't you do an observational study on 1:1 language on the under 2s in nursery? ie How much 1:1 conversation do babies get with staff in nursery? Does this correlate with language devpt by the age of 2 or 3? (comparison groups could be FT babies, part-time) Are nursery children less likely to have good language devpt?

Even if the result is a bit neagtive, you could conclude a recommendation regarding staff interaction with the children (ie planned 1:1 'chatting time' in the day)

[Journey]

The ops' title is not appropriate - "Whether nursery care is harmful for young babies". It suggests that the op has already come to a conclusion of sorts by using the word "harmful". Who says it's harmful? Research for your dissertation shouldn't be biased towards an outcome.

Nursery environment (or ideally a specific aspect of it) would be better than "nursery care". Using "care" is a bit open ended. Is it just the relationship between baby and nursery nurse, or wider than this? The two words "care" and "harmful" also look very controversial together!

An age range would be better than "young babies".

There been a TV programme on this (this year) but I can't remember what it was called.

If you're going to interview or handout questionnaires to any of the babies' parents please be as diplomatic as possible. You could open up a can of worms.

Good luck with your dissertation.

[onagar]

Are people really saying that research should only be in areas that won't give people bad news?
parents who use nurseries usually do so out of necessity so how will it help to tell them their child is being 'harmed'.

Remember when it was about "adding to the sum of human knowledge"? sigh

Maybe we should just stop all research and teaching and just do a poll to find out what most people want the facts to be.

[scottishmummy]

there is a premise of researcher inquiry and impartiality
start from premise of "harmful" isn't objective