Early or Later DayCare The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby maintains that separation from theparents during the sensitive “attachment”period from birth to three may

scar a child'spersonality and predispose to emotional problems in later life.Some people havedrawn the conclusion from Bowlby's work that children should not be subjected

to day care beforethe age of three because of the parental sepa-ration it entails,and many peopledo believe this. But there are also arguments against such a strong

conclusion.Firstly,anthropologists point out that the insulated love affair betweenchildren and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist intraditional

societies.Forexample,in some tribal societies,such as the Ngoni,the father and mother of achild did not rear their infant a-lone—far from it .Secondly,common sense tellsus

that day care wouldnot be so widespread to-day if parents,care—takers found children had problemswith it. Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out,and

even if theywere,the results would be certain to be complicat-ed andcontroversial.Thirdly,in the last decade there have been a number of carefulAmerican studies of

children in daycare,and they have uniformly reported that day care had a neural or slightlypositive effect on children's development. But tests that have had to be usedto

measure thisdevelopment are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue. But Bowlby'sanalysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects.Thepossi-

bility that suchcare might lead to,say,more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later canonly be explored by the use of statistics.Whatever the long-termeffects,parents

sometimes find theimmediate effects difficult to deal with.Children under three are likely toprotest at leaving their parents and show unhappiness.At the age of three orthree

and a half almostall children find the transition to nursery easy,and this is undoubtedly whymore and more parents make use of child care at this time.The matter,then,isfar

fromclear-cut,though experience and available evi- dence indicate that early careis reasonable for infants.Which of thefollowing is derivable from Bowlby's work?

A.Day care wouldnot be so popular if it has noticeable negative effects on a child'spersonality.

B. A child sent to aday care center before the age of three may have emotional problems in laterlife.

C. Day carenurseries have positive effects on a child's development.

D. Mothers shouldnot send their children to day care centers before the age of three.