Brainwave is a charitable trust, which exists to educate New Zealanders from all walks of life about the latest research in neuroscience. They now know that a child’s experiences from conception to three largely determine how their brain develops, and whether they will become capable, contributing, well adjusted adults. They have a lot of information they want to pass on – to parents, to educators, to health professionals, to social workers, to anyone who works with or parents children!
Researching and understanding the effects of non-parental care on young children is complex. Each child, each family, each situation is different. Data can only speak in statistically significant generalities. Yet once the findings from the research become robust and repeated it is important to report it so that parents can incorporate this information into their decisions, as well as advocate for improved policies and programmes.
To date, many studies have examined the link between the stress hormone cortisol and the use of childcare in children. Because observed behaviours do not always reliably reflect a child’s stress level, physiological measures are seen as more accurate assessments of a child’s stress response in childcare. Humans produce cortisol even when they are not stressed. However, multiple pathways in the brain respond to threat or challenge by increasing activity of the HPA system that raises cortisol levels over normal baseline. Chronic exposure to stress early in childhood may be a risk for later affective and cognitive functioning.
As of 2006, all the published studies examining this link were assessed and evaluated in a meta-analysis . The data included research from the USA, Germany, Hungary and France and draws from a range of childcare settings, including use of a model centre that is used for training purposes and was assessed as of the highest quality.
