Hidden stress of the nursery age
* Study finds hormone level soars when daycare starts
· Extra time with parents needed to help calm down
Toddlers starting at nursery after being at home since birth experience high levels of stress in the first weeks after separating from their mothers, and are still showing “chronic mild stress” as long as five months after their first day in the new environment, according to a study measuring hormone levels in young children.
Levels of the stress hormone cortisol doubled even in secure youngsters during the first nine days of childcare without their mothers present, compared with their normal level at home. The levels fell but were still significantly higher than for the same infants at home five months later, even though the children (aged between 11 and 20 months when they started nursery) by then appeared to have settled and no longer showed outward signs of distress.
In a further insight into the way young children react to daycare – an increasingly common experience for UK toddlers as more and more mothers return to the workplace – a related study also reveals that children at nursery do not see a drop in cortisol levels over the day as they would at home. Instead, they remain “unusually aroused or stressed”, and, a research paper drawing on the cortisol studies concludes, they need extra time and attention at the end of the day to help bring them back to “emotional equilibrium” ready for the next day at nursery. Without that comfort from a parent, says the paper, the children start the following day “hyper-aroused”, which can lead to behaviour problems or disobedience.
The findings do not mean that daycare is bad for children, and there is no evidence yet of long-term effects of raised cortisol levels, according to co-author Michael Lamb of Cambridge University. However, the conclusions can help provide pointers to show how parents, nurseries and policy-makers can minimise the stress toddlers experience when they make the transition from home
In his paper, co-authored by Lieselotte Ahnert of the Free University of Berlin, Prof Lamb proposes a range of measures to ease children’s experience of daycare. One way of controlling the build-up of stress, according to the paper, is quite simply to minimise the time children spend in care each day. However, while some parents may wish to reduce the time their children spend in nursery, the UK’s notoriously long working hours – the longest in Europe – still militate against parents, who may also face financial pressures to spend extra time at their desks.
Parents need time in the evenings to return youngsters to “emotional equilibrium” before the children face another round of emotion-arousing experiences, the paper concludes. However, Prof Lamb acknowledged children’s need for parental focus and a cuddle coincided with parents’ hurry “to get the food ready, clean up, get the child ready for bed”.
Psychologist Oliver James, said while having time with children at the end of the day was better than nothing, “much better would be to organise our society in such a way so that women genuinely feel valued and have status higher than that of street cleaners if they do want to look after their children”.
Source : Hidden stress of nursery age – The Guardian
