I just picked up some information on the 'childcare causes antisocial behaviour' debate that was running a week or so ago. It was on a program on Radio 4s 'numbers' program.
They interviewed the statistician who was involved in the research. She said that no journalists had contacted her about the reasrch except radio 4 'numbers; prog. She said that the 'bad' effect of child care was weak, and short term but that there were 6 stongly positive benefits of children attending childcare facilities which included reduced anxiety on entering school, better communication skills and better pre reading/counting skills. None of these were listed in the tabloid reports!
Nice to see unbiased reporting. As I said, the whole reports were an exercise in making working mothers feel bad, and there appears to be no evidence to support that statement, and that was from the statitstician involved in the study!