Teacher-rated psychiatric problems in 8-year-old children and parental quality of previous day-care.

In this study behavioural/emotional problems in 95 8-year-old schoolchildren were assessed by using the Rutter Parent Questionnaire (RB2) for teachers and related to earlier day-care periods. A relatively low proportion of behavioural/emotional problems was found among those children whose parents reported only moderate dissatisfaction with the first day-care period. Behavioural/emotional problems were associated with high numbers of day-care periods and short day-care periods. The proportion of problems was high among children with a moderate mean length of periods as compared with those with no day-care short periods or very long periods. The differences in behavioural/emotional problems were related to the degree of parental satisfaction with the quality, as well as to the continuity of day-care. However, the results of logistic regression analysis found no significant associations related to stability when the background factors were controlled for. These results may reflect the consequences of continuity versus discontinuity in the relationships between children, parents and caregivers.