Should the United States offer universal public preschool? Sparked by the debate over whether or not pre-K is a good social investment, researchers at Stanford and the University of California Berkeley investigated children’s cognitive and social development in relation to the hours spent in childcare. The study found that poor children made substantial gains in cognitive skills, but suggested that affluent children who logged more than 30 hours per week in childcare centers showed diminished levels of cooperation, sharing and other social behaviors compared to kids who stayed home with a parent.

This article was featured in the August 2011 issue of Working Mother Research Institute’s email newsletter, Working Mother Research Institute Essentials. To read additional stories from that issue, see the related content section above. To subscribe to Working Mother Research Institute Essentials, register on the newsletter page of this website.

S. Loeb et al, How Much is Too Much: The Influence of Preschool Centers on Children’s Development Nationwide http://gse.berkeley.edu/research/pace/reports/Stanford_Berkeley_pr23DA13.pdf