A large, long-term study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2001 and 2007 linked longer hours in a childcare center setting with behavior problems later in a child’s life.

Since those findings, however, other research has found that the subsequent behavior problems were usually linked to low-quality childcare earlier in life; children who attended high-quality care settings did not seem to have behavior issues later on.

While every child will respond to childcare center settings differently, it’s best to choose a high-quality setting and to keep the number of hours a child spends in a childcare center to fewer than 40 hours per week if possible.

See also ...

•  What’s the right teacher-to-student ratio?

•  Benefits of daycare for young kids

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