Department of Developmental Psychology-Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 3, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Early Hum Dev. 2011 Jan;87(1):9-15. doi: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2010.09.003. Epub 2010 Oct 8.
Previous research found that centre-based childcare is related to more illnesses early in life. The goal of this longitudinal study is to determine whether infant health in the first year of life is also related to the amount of time spent in non-parental care and the number of concurrent non-parental care arrangements.
Information on infant health and non-parental care was obtained through monthly maternal interviews across the first year of life. The occurrences of respiratory, digestive, general, and skin illnesses and complaints were used as dependent variables, while the number of hours and the number of arrangements per week were used as predictors. Analyses were done separately in infants for whom centre-based childcare is included in their arrangements (n=107), and for those which it is not (n=61).
Infants spending more hours in non-parental care had more respiratory and general illnesses. Infants who were cared for in more concurrent arrangements had fewer respiratory and general, but more skin illnesses. These results only applied to infants that included centre-based childcare in their arrangements. In the group of infants that did not attend centre-based childcare, health was not related to either the number of hours or the number of arrangements.
Number of hours and number of arrangements do matter in relation to infant health early in life, but only for infants who attend centre-based childcare. While more hours were related to more illnesses, more arrangements were related to both fewer and more illnesses, depending on the type of illnesses.
先前的研究发现，中心式儿童保育与生命早期更多的疾病有关。本纵向研究的目的是确定婴儿在生命的第一年的健康状况是否也与非父母照料的时间量和同时进行的非父母照料安排的数量有关。
通过在生命的第一年中每月对母亲进行访谈，获得有关婴儿健康和非父母照料的信息。呼吸道、消化、一般和皮肤疾病和疾病的发生被用作因变量，而每周的小时数和安排数被用作预测变量。分别对包含中心式儿童保育安排的婴儿（n=107）和不包含中心式儿童保育安排的婴儿（n=61）进行分析。
在非父母照料中花费更多时间的婴儿患呼吸道和一般疾病的次数更多。在更多同时进行的安排中得到照顾的婴儿患呼吸道和一般疾病的次数较少，但患皮肤疾病的次数较多。这些结果仅适用于将中心式儿童保育纳入其安排的婴儿。在不参加中心式儿童保育的婴儿组中，健康状况与小时数或安排数均无关。
在生命早期，与婴儿健康相关的不仅是时间量，还有安排数，但这仅适用于参加中心式儿童保育的婴儿。虽然更多的时间与更多的疾病有关，但更多的安排与更少和更多的疾病有关，具体取决于疾病的类型。
