Early childcare arrangements and children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms: an individual participant data meta-analysis of six prospective birth cohorts in Europe
Background Early childcare attendance may be related to children's ' s internalizing and externalizing symptoms throughout childhood and young adolescence, however evidence from Europe is limited. We aimed to assess this association across multiple population-based birth cohorts of childre...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana (FISABIO) |
| Repositorio: | r-FISABIO. Repositorio Institucional de Producción Científica |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:fisabio.fundanetsuite.com:p17682 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://fisabio.portalinvestigacion.com/publicaciones/17682 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Centre-based childcare Informal childcare Internalizing symptoms Externalizing symptoms Epidemiology Child cohorts |
| Sumario: | Background Early childcare attendance may be related to children's ' s internalizing and externalizing symptoms throughout childhood and young adolescence, however evidence from Europe is limited. We aimed to assess this association across multiple population-based birth cohorts of children recruited in different European countries. Methods Data come from six parent-offspring prospective birth cohort studies across fi ve European countries within the EU Child Cohort Network. A total of 87,208 parent-child dyads were included in the study. To test associations between childcare attendance (centre-based or informal) anytime between ages 0 and 4 years and children's ' s internalizing and externalizing symptoms in middle childhood and young adolescence (measured at: 5-6 - 6 years, 7-9 - 9 years, and 10-13 - 13 years) a two-stage individual participant data meta-analysis was implemented. Linear regression models were performed in each cohort separately; combined random-effects meta-analysis was then used to obtain overall association estimates. In secondary analyses, we tested interactions between childcare attendance and mother's ' s post-partum depression, low education status, and the child's ' s sex. Findings Compared to children who were exclusively cared for by their parents prior to school entry, those who attended centre-based childcare had lower levels of internalizing symptoms in all age groups [5-6 - 6 years: (3 : - 1.78 (95% CI: - 3.39, - 0.16); 7-9 - 9 years: (3 : - 0.55 (95% CI: - 0.88, - 0.73); 10-13 - 13 years: (3 : - 0.76 (95% CI: - 1.15, - 0.37)]. Children who attended informal childcare appeared to have elevated levels of internalizing symptoms between 7-9 - 9 and 10-13 - 13 years, respectively [(3: (3 : 1.65 (95% CI: 1.25, 2.06); (3 : 1.25 (95% CI: 0.96, 1.54)]. Informal childcare attendance was also associated with increased levels of children's ' s externalizing symptoms between 7-9 - 9 and 10-13 - 13 years, respectively [(3: (3 : 2.84 (95% CI: 1.41, 4.26); (3 : 2.19 (95% CI: 0.54, 3.84)]. Interpretation Early centre-based childcare is associated with decreased levels of children's ' s internalizing symptoms compared to exclusive parental care. For informal childcare, opposite associations were observed. Overall, our results suggest that centre-based childcare attendance may be associated with slight positive impacts on children's ' s emotional development and should be encouraged by public policies. In addition, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families require special attention, as they may not sufficiently fi ciently benefit fi t from universal early childhood education and care (ECEC). Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
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