I have been trawling around European studies about outcomes for children placed in child care at an early age - the results are mixed, and it is hard to control for the variable of the quality of that care.
One interesting study by Oxford University concludes: "One finding that did emerge was that children who spent more time in group care, mainly nursery care, were more likely to have behavioural problems, particularly hyperactivity. Conclusions: These findings suggest that interventions to enhance children’s emotional and behavioural development might best focus on supporting families and augmenting the quality of care in the home"
I do like the idea of focussing interventions on the home - in other words supporting young families so that parents can be at home with their children. The focus has been on getting parents back to work and putting support into day care. There is a case to be made out for shifting that focus.
I posted this in the thread about boarding schools but thought it might be best to start a new thread rather than hijack that one.
I would be very interested to hear from mumsnetters who might have been involved in such research - it does seem a very important topic that is ripe for further investigation, now that we have policies favouring child care settings like nurseries. It would be good to know what the implications of this are.