Does Night Care Affect Development? A Five-year Follow-up

Japanese regulations have aimed to monitor night care for children since 1981, when a tragic accident took the life of a child in an unauthorized child care center. Nevertheless, concerns persist about the efficacy of the care of children outside the home during the nighttime hours. This longitudinal project assessed the development and adaptation of children who had been in night care for a period of five years. Parents and child care professionals completed surveys: The former about the home environment and their own perceptions of their experience of childrearing, and the latter about the children’s development. The results suggest that factors in the home environment, rather than center-based care, explain developmental risks.