AUSTRA~I.~ I:;S:liUT~ Of rA;J~Y STUDICS

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C()O\,' 3 I,'

:iD JUN 1992

FAMI,-V IN""ORMATlON CENTRE

AUSTRA~I.~ I:;S:liUT~ Of rA;J~Y STUDICS 300 QUEEN STREET

MEL.BOUR~E vie. 3000

REPORT ON STAGE ONE OF THE EARLY CHILDHOOD CONTEXTS STUDY:

prel~nary findings

Gay Ochiltree and Don Edgar

This study is conducted in conjunction with the Children's Service

Office in South Australia, the Office of the Family in Western Australia

and with assistance'from the Commonwealth Department of Community

Services and Health.

The following staff provided research assistance and or advice on the

project: Peter Schmidt, Andrew Prolisko, Peter McDonald, Gillian

Hamerston, Violet Kolar, Vance Merrill, Sandra Marsden and Evelyn

Greenblatt. '--l

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CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Method and sample characteristics

3. Mother's work patterns and child care

arrangements

4. 'An ear to listen and a shoulder to cry

on': the use of child health services in

Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

5. The effects of non-maternal care in the

first twelve months of life on children

in the first year of school

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Introduction

until recently, most Australian children under the age of five years were

cared for at home by their mothers; these days, due to social and economic

changes in society, increasing numbers of mothers of pre-school children are

entering the paid work force and their children are in the care of others.

This trend is c~mmon to most Western countries, not just in Australia, as

married women return to work after bearing children. In 1954, only 13 per

cent of married women were in the ~aid workforce. By 1966 it was 29

per cent (Prosser, 1981). By June 1990, the rate of participation of

mothers with children in the 0 to 4 age group reached 46 per cent, of whom

27.9 per cent were working part-time, 14.4 per cent full-time and 4.0 per

cent were unemployed. However, as children get older, the maternal labour

force participation rate increases and stands at 69.5 per cent for mothers

of children in the 5 to 14 age group, with 30.3 per cent of mothers working

full-time, 34.9 per cent part-time and 4.3 per cent unemployed (ABS, 1990).

Mothers work outside the home for many reasons, but financial need is a

pressing incentive to many as the cost of bringing up children increases,

and the prices of homes and rents rise. Some mothers work for career

reasons, ensuring their skills do not become out-of-date and because they

like the mental stimulation and the independence associated with earning

their own money. Whatever the reasons that mothers of pre-school children

work outside the home may be, the result is that the early childhood

experiences of many children are different from those of previous

generations.

It is important to note that this trend to working mothers is not new

historically. Before the Industrial Revolution both men and women took care

of children as they went about their work at home or in the local area. In

the early days of the Industrial Revolution children of the working class

worked in the factories with their parents, until children's hours of work

were made shorter thus breaking up the family unit. Gradually children's

labour was no longer needed as machines improved (Harrison 1973). The

separation of home and work that occurred with industrialisation led to the

isolation of middle-class women in their homes and set the scene for the

idealisation of motherhood that occurred in the late nineteenth century

(Dally 1982; Zelizer 1985). Over time this pattern extended to working

class mothers, even though it was more difficult for them to live up to the

ideal.

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Early childhood is an important stage in child development; the progress

of children physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally is greatest

in the first five years of life. From birth on children are learning all

the time, and whether at home with mother or in the care of others, those

around them are involved in this learning process even if they are not aware

of it. It is in early childhood that children acquire language, and that

the foundations are laid for literacy, which is so important for success at

school, and later for employment. Whether children are cared for at home or

away from home, it is important that they receive care which not only keeps

them safe and healthy but enables them to participate in a modern society

which requires independent, literate and educa~ed citizens (~nkeles, 1965;

Clauscen, 1966; Smith, 1969; Edgar, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1980).

There is considerable debate concerning the care of children in the

period between birth and starting school. Central to this debate are

competing views on the effects of non-maternal care on young children, the

importance of the mother-child relationship and, with the increase in

mothers returning to the paid work-force, problems regarding the

availability of child care, and issues relating to the quality and cost of

that care. While many children whose mothers work are cared for in child

care centres or family daycare schemes, many others are.cared for informally

by relatives, neighbours or friends, either in their own homes or in the

homes of the care-giver; others again are cared for by privately employed

baby-sitters, housekeepers, or Nannies in their own home. Although child

care provision is often regarded largely as a women'.s issue, because

availability is closely linked with equal opportunities for ~omen, it is

also important that children should receive care which is appropriate to

their developmental needs and to the needs of society.

The Early Childhood Study was designed in response to these changes in

the care of pre-school children and arguments about the effects on children.

The major objectives of this study are:

(i) to provide a comprehensive picture of Australian mothers'

experiences of bringing up children in a variety of circumstances (in

metropolitan areas), from birth until the first year at school, (whether

mother was in the paid workforce for some of the time or whether she

remained at home with the child).

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(ii) to examine the relationship between differing contexts of child

care and the development of child competence by time of the first year

of school.

Australia today

,. The trend to increased participation of mothers in the paid work force is

only one of the changes in the social context in which young children are

now living. There are several-others. The trend is to small families;

between 1971 and 1982- the total fertility rat& dropped from 2.87 births per

woman to 1.94 births;, by 1988 it was 1.84 (ASS 1988). However, McDonald

(1.990) points out that despite the lower Total Fertility Rate for all women,

over a lifetime 32 per cent of all women would have three or more children.

Younger women are de~aying childbearing and older women are ending

childbearing at a younger age. Families are therefore not only smaller but

children are closer in age (Department of Immigration, 1988).

With the increase in divorce and separation in recent years more single

parents are bringing up children alone. Estimates are that about 3.9 per

cent of children have experienced the divorce of their parents by the time

they are five years old, and even more children in this age group have , experienced the separation of their parents (Carmichael and McDonald, 1988).

There is increased poverty, much of which is associated with living in a

female headed single parent family after divorce, however there has also

been an increase in ~he proportion of married couple families living in

poverty, usually related to unemployment (Maas, 1987). In the period

between 1972-73 and 1985-86, the number of children in poverty had risen

from 6 per cent to 21 per cent of all children (Brownlee and King., 1989).

Poverty is known to have a negative effect on child health, wellbeing, and

educational opportunities (Edgar, Keane and McDonald, 1989).

Where once Austr~lia_ was notable for the common British background of

its people, Australia's population has undergone a major cultural change

with the arrival 'of 3.5 million immigrants since World War 11, and is now a

country notable for its mixture of races and cultures. As a result of this

influx of migrants, one in every seven Australians speaks a l~nguage other

than English in the home (Department of Immigration, 1988). At the time of

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the 1986 Census just on 21 per cent of the population was born overseas

(Department of Immigration, 1988). Today migrants are encouraged to retain

their own cultural identity and government policy encourages multi

cu1turalism, unlike the earlier policy of assimilation, where migrants were

expected to discard their own language and cultural heritage and to adopt

Australian ways.

To sum up, the current context for bringing up young children in present

day Australia is very different from that of previous decades; mothers are

more likely to be working before the child goes to school, there are more

single parents rearing children alone, there rs increased poverty, many

children are growing up in different cultural contexts from the dominant

Anglo-Celtic culture, and more children are growing up with English as a

second language or with exposure to languages other than English.

Design of the Early childhood study

The Australian Early Childhood study was designed both to describe and to

examine the relationship between a broad range of family factors, child

characteristics, and different patterns of caring for children, including

non-maternal care, in the years between birth and starting school and a

range of child outcomes in the first year of school. The study design is of

two complementary stages; stage 1 consists of a mailed-out questionnaire to

mothers of children in the first year of school. Data collected in this

stage of the study includes information on the various forms of care used

for the child in the years before starting school, mother's current work

situation and average hours of paid work for each year since birth, average

hours that the child was in the care of others for each year from birth,

mother's use of and satisfaction with child health services, an indication

of the child's competence as measured by a modified form of the ACER Parent

Checklist, and basic social and economic information about the family. This

report is based on information from Stage 1 of the study only.

Although this report does not contain information from Stage 2 of the

Early Childhood study, it is useful to have some understanding of the links

between Stage 1 and Stage 2. Information collected in Stage One of the

study, on the different contexts of caring for children, enabled the precise

selection of the smaller Stage 2 sample. Mothers were selected on the basis

of the forms of care they had used for their children in the pre-school

years; the selected mothers were interviewed in depth about the particular

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child who was the focus of the study, their family, reasons for working or

not working and, if they worked, how they managed both home and work

responsibilities. Mother's reasons for the choice of different forms of

child care, and information on the health and wellbeing of mother and child

was also obtained. Table 1 shows aspects of information about the family

context which were collected in stages 1 and 2 of the study (information

collected in St~ge 1 is indicated by *). Table 2 shows information about

child care contexts which were collected in the two stages of the study.

INSERT TABLES 1 AND 2 HERE

At stage 2 the competence of the target child. in the first year of

school was tested using several measures - Clay's concepts of print

(reading), Larson's copying test (a Piagetian non-language based test)

individually administered in the child's own home. In addition teachers

filled in the ACER teacher checklist (which includes teacher's perceptions

of the child's memory and attentio~, language skills, and social and

emotional development). Table 3 shows the competence outcome measures used

in the study (* indicates that the measure was used in Stage 1).

Information on Stage Two of the study will come out in a series of reports

and articles and will be available separately. The rest of this report

refers to Stage 1 only.

INSERT TABLE 3 HERE

Child competence

The overall concern of this study is the relationship between different

contexts of caring for children. in the pre-school years and child

competence. The focus is competence, rather than a narrow focus on

pathological behaviour, adjustment, or simply.educational achievement,

because the concept of competence stresses positive aspects of development

rather than deficits, and it encompasses a wide range of human functioning

(Wine, 1981). Competence is having the knowledge, skills and abilities

suitable for life in contemporary society, and includes also the intra

personal elements of control and efficacy. competence varies to some extent

according to the community and social group in which the individual lives,

but some basic abilities are necessary for people in all walks of life.

TABLE 1

FAMILY CONTEXT

(* included in Stage 1)

SOCIAL BACKGROUND FAMILY INCO~E * EDUCATION bEVEL OF BOTH PARENTS * OCCUPATION OF BOTH PARENTS * FAMILY STRUCTURE (2 parents, 1 parent, remarried) * ETHNICITY *

FAMILY PROCESSES MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIP (as perceived by mother) FATHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIP (as perceived by mother) DIVISION OF LABOUR IN THE FAMILY (as perceived by mother) MARITAL CONFLICT (as perceived by mother)

PARENTING MOTHER'S VALUES ASPIRATIONS FOR THE CHILD ENCOURAGEMENT OF EDUCATION PARENTING STYLE

MOTHER MOTHER'S HEALTH NOW AND AFTER BIRTH OF CHILD MOTHER'S WELLBEING LIFE SATISFACTION * LIFE EVENTS SCALE EMPLOYMENT HISTORY SINCE BIRTH OF CHILD

NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSING QUALITY NEIGHBOURHOOD QUALITY PERCEPTION OF SERVICES MOBILITY

CHILD CHARACTERISTICS SEX * POSITION IN BIRTH ORDER * DISABILITY * HEALTH PERSONALITY NOW AND AS AN INFANT (mother's perception) CURRENT SITUATION AT SCHOOL

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TABLE 2

CHILD CARE CONTEXTS


AGE OF CHILD WHEN FIRST IN NON-MATERNAL CARE * .. ,.

CARE CONTEXT

FORMAL CARE

INFORMAL CARE

AT HOME (includes kindergarten) * HOME AND OTHER CARE *

.. KINDERGARTEN * CHILD CARE CENTRE (public/private) * FAMILY DAYCARE * WORK-BASED CHILD CARE *

R~LATIVES * FRIENDS * NEIGHBOURS * NANNY/BABYSITTER * HOUSEKEEPER * LEFT ALONE * SIBLINGS *

COMBINATIONS OF ABOVE CARE (over the pre-school years)*

MULTIPLE CONTEXTS * SIMPLE CONTEXTS * CONTINUITY/DISRUPTION STABILITY/INSTABILITY

MOTHER'S SATISFACTION WITH CARE SITUATIONS

CHOICE OF CARE

IN GENERAL * IN EACH PARTICULAR CARE SITUATION

QUALITIES LOOKED FOR ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES ARRANGEMENTS FOR SICK CHILD ARRANGEMENTS FOR MORE THAN ONE CHILD

TABLE 3

1.

CHILD OUTCOMES (Competence)


ACER PARENT CHECKLIST

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR AND SKILLS, SOCIAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR AND LANGUAGE SKILLS*

2. ACER TEACHER CHECKLIST

LANGUAGE SKILLS, MEMORY AND ATTENTION SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT,

3. CLAY'S CONCEPTS OF PRINT (Sand Test)

KNOWLEDGE UNDERPINNING READING

4. LARSON'S COPYING TEST

(A Piagetian test not based on language)

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There are many forms of competence but certain forms are. valued more

highly than others by those who control the major institutions of our

society (Inkeles, 1965; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977; Kagan, 1977; Edgar,

1974, 1975, 1980). In most western societies competencies involving

language ability, intelligence, academic learning, formal qualifications,

social skills, leadership, competitiveness and sporting prowess are more

highly valued than competencies involving manual or domestic skills, child

care, or physical strength. People who possess valued competencies are more

likely to experience success in life, and to achieve the rewards of a higher

status job, respect, money and consumer power, and greater independence and

choice. Children whose families have resourcGs which facilitate the

development of socially preferred and highly valued competencies are

advantaged compared with children whose families do not have these

resources. However, preferred competencies are always the product of a

particular culture, sub-culture, and historical period (Inkeles, 1965;

Marlowe and Weinberg, 1985).

, A number of 'resources' are known to facilitate the development of

competence. These resources can consist of biologically inherited traits

and capacities, personal relationships, material possessions, access to

information, education, social networks, or any possession or quality which

has the potential to be transformed within the family into forms of

competence. In this study resources which are biological in nature, other

than the sex of the child, will not be taken into account.

Burton White (1979a, 1979b) in his study of developing competence in one

to three year olds found that family experiences between seven months and

three years were particularly important for educational achievement on

school entry. Language experiences at this stage played a substantial part

in th~ rate and level of later linguistic and cognitive abilities. From 15

months onwards children who would do well later were already progressing

ahead of others and children who were going to have difficulties were

already apparent and falling behind. Children in the Headstart programs in

the United states who achieved the least were those who at three went into

the programs the most disadvantaged. White states' ••• the family is not

only the source of "the child's genes and physical makeup, but it is also the

purveyor of the child's educational experiences before he goes to school'

(White, 1979b). While educational achievement is only one aspect of

competence it is a major one in modern society which depends on formal

education as a preparation for work.

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Many families provide stimulation for a range of skills which are not

the skills of the middle-class culture. ' ... It seems increasingly evident

that there is a marked discrepancy between the skills and concepts learned

by some children from minority subcultures and those valued in the school

culture •••• each environment has its own specific demand characteristics,

and a child's success or failure may depend on the degree of overlap in the

skills and social behaviors required in the various environments the learner

must negotiate' (Henderson, 1981). The language and print experiences of

some cultural minorities and low income groups does not work to their

advantage when they go to school' (Teale, 1982).

These days with more mothers in the paid workforce, many children in

non-maternal care have additional socialisation experiences in the pre

school years outside the family; this 'dual' socialisation may have some

impact on their competence when tyhey begin school. The basic competence of

children in Stage One of the Early Childhood study, as perceived by the

mother, was tested using a modified form of the ACER Parent Checklist which

was included in the mailed-out questionnaire. This is discussed more fully

in the final chapter which examines certain aspects of the competence of

children who have been in nonmaternal care in the first twelve months of

life.

Organisation of the report

The following topics are covered in this report: sample characterisitics,

the use of child health services, mother's work force participation and

child-care arrangements in the pre-school years and when the child starts

school, and finally an examination of the effects of nonmaternal care in the

first twelve.months of life on children in the first year of school. The

focus on non-maternal care in the first twelve months of life is because of

increasing concern about the long term effects on children and is discussed

more fully in section 5.

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2. METHOD AND SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS

Although this study was designed by the Australian Institute of Family

Studies, several other organisations are involved. The Children's Service

Office in South Australia asked to join the project when the questionnaire

for Stage 1 was being piloted and had. some input into the content (and also .~

into the interview schedule for Stage 2). The Office of the Family in

Western Australia joined the project after the field work for both Stage 1

and Stage 2 had been completed in Melbourne and Adelaide. Both these

departments paid the cost of the sample in their own state. The

Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health contributed $10,000

towards the costs to increase the size of the sample at Stage 2.

Children of around five years of age, in their first year of school,

were chosen as the target group for this study. These children could be

readily located through the school .system and provided a wide range of care

contexts in the years before they commenced school. Obtaining a sample

through the school system also avoided the problem of bias as all children

attend school. A large sample was necessary at Stage 1 so that a

reasonable sample from groups which are of particular interest for this

study, but where numbers are small, could be obtained. For example, it was

important to include mothers who were in the paid workforce in the first

year of the target child's life, although only a small group of mothers fall

into this category~

Field work

Schools in the Western and Eastern education regions of Melbourne were asked

if they would participate in the first stage of the study by passing on a

questionnaire to the parents of children in beginners grades. These regions

were selected because they covered the full range of the socio-economic

spectrum, and also because they included a wide range of ethnic groups.

Catholic and Independent schools were also selected and individually

requested to participate. Altogether, letters were sent to the principals

of 405 primary schools (339 State, 20 Independent, and 46 Catholic schools)

explaining the purpose of the study and asking if they would assist by

sending out letters to the mothers of children in beginners grades. The

letter was followed by a telephone reminder to principals. Altogether 342

schools agreed to take part.

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Children's Services Office South Australia took a slightly different

approach to the selection of Adelaide schools. Invitations to participate

in the study were sent to 357 schools: 63 State Junior primary schools, 145

State Primary schools, 81 Independent and 68 catholic Parish schools. One

hundred and thirty-nine schools agreed to take part. The lower ~esponse of

Adelaide schools is probably because a draft copy of the questionnaire was

included with t~e ·letter to the principal; some principals objected to the

question about family income on the grounds that it was intrusive. Even so,

the schools willing to take part represented more children than the

Children's Services Office could afford to process. For this reason schools

in each of the four regional areas which had agreed to take part were ranked

on a scale of one to three, indicating need priorities and taking account

the numbers of children at each. Selection took into account socio-economic

status, ethnicity and newly developing areas. Ninety-four schools were

selected, 17 Junior Primary, 47 Primary, 15 Independent and 15 Catholic.

The Office of the Family in Pe~th followed a similar procedure to that

taken in Melbourne. Schools that were invited to take part in the study

covered the socio-economic range and included children of many ethnic

backgrounds. Some independent and Catholic schools were also invited to

take part. Altogether 59 schools in W.A. agreed to participate: 2

Independent, 9 Catholic, and 48 state schools.

Although the Office of the Family joined the study after the fieldwork

in Melbourne and Adelaide was complete, all fieldwork procedures were the

same. Questionnaires were sent to mothers of all children in beginners

grades in the schools which had agreed to take part. Included with the

questionnaire was a letter explaining the purpose of the study and asking

mothers to return the completed questionnaire to the Institute, in the

enclosed reply-paid envelope. A letter of explanation in the major

community languages was also included. Principals received a copy of all

information which the mothers received, and a letter explaining the

procedures. They also received envelopes containing two reminder letters

for parents which were to be sent out a week and a fortnight after the

questionnaire. The first reminder letter was accompanied by another in the

major community languages. All printed material included the names and

telephone numbers of people who could be contacted for assistance with

language problems or other difficulties.

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All told, 20,000 questionnaires were sent out; 3,000 in each of Adelaide

and Perth (as this was the number they had costed for), and 14,000 in

Melbourne. Of these 540 went to principals, and the rest to mothers of

children in the first year of school. Altogether 8,616 questionnaires were

returned to the Institute before the cut off date for acceptance, 5,721 from

Melbourne, 1,404 from Adelaide, and 1,466 from Perth; the state could not be

identified in 26 cases as identification had been obliterated. A further 77

questionnaires (52 from Victoria and 25 from South Australia) were received

after the cut off date and could not be included in the study. Perth and

Adelaide each had a response rate of 50 per cent, Melbourne was lower at 42

per cent, and the overall response rate was 4~per cent.

Mothers were also asked if they were prepared to be interviewed in the

second stage of the study; 3,975 mothers agreed to further contact, 4,179

declined further cont~ct, and 317 mothers did not answer the question, which

they may have missed, as it was on a fold-out section of the questionnaire.

Of those who answered the question, 49 per cent said that they were prepared

to be interviewed in the second stage of the study.

Who was in the sample?

Figure 1 shows the numbers of mothers who were in the two stages of the

study in each state. The greatest proportion of mothers in the Stage 1

sample are from Melbourne, 66.3 per cent (N=5597), 16.4 per cent (N=1383)

were from Adelaide, and 17.4 per cent (N=1466) from Perth. The sample was

collected through the State school system- (85.3 per cent), the Catholic

school system (10.3 per cent), and Independent schools (4.4 per cent). Most

children in the sample (at the time in their first year of school) were born

in 1982, 47.8 per cent, 1983, 52 per cent, and a few children, .2 per cent

(N=21) were born in 1984. Fifty-seven children were born in 1981; because

they were older than most of the sample children they were not included in

the analysis.

INSERT FIGURE 1 HERE

Weighting: In order to make the. sample representative of the population,

figures from the 1986 census for the number of five year old children in

Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth were compared with the sample figures for each

of these cities. The Adelaide and Perth samples represented just on 10 per

cent of the populatiort of five year olds in those cities; the Melbourne

FIGURE 1: SAMPLES FOR STAGES I.AND 2 AUSTRALIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD ST.UDY

STAGE 1: MAILED QUESTIONNAIRE TO MOTHERS OF CHILDREN IN THE FIRST- YEAR OF SCHOOL

I I MELBOURNE ! 5{>19 I i I

ADELAIDE 1386

PERTH 1451

TOTAL 8456

STAGE 2: MOTHER INTERVIEWS & CHILD TESTING

MELBOURNE 446

ADELAIDE 182

PERTH 100

TOTAL 728

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sample was 14 per cent. of the population of five year olds. A weighting

factor was calculated for each city and the sample was weighted so that it

proportionally represents the population of five year olds in the three

cities combined.

As can be seen in Figure 2, for 44.2 per cent of the sample the target

child (who was in the first year of school) was the first born (this

category included only children), 37.8 per cent were the last born child,

and 18 per cent were middle children.


Because of the ethnic diversity of the Australian community, it was

important that the sample represented this range. Figure 3 shows that

almost a fifth of the sample (18.1 per cent) spoke a language other than

English in the home. Slightly more Melbourne mothers reported speaking a

language other than English in the home than Adelaide or Perth mothers.

Both parents were born in English speaking countries in approximately 74.1

per cent of families. In 13.2 per cent of families, one parent was born in

a non-English speaking country while the other was not. In another 12.7 per

cent of families, both parents were born in non-English speaking countries.

Melbourne had more families (14.9 per cent) where both parents were born in

non-English speaking countries in the sample, than Perth, 11.7 per cent, and

Adelaide had the least with 7.3 per cent (these percentages omit single

parent families and stepfamilies, and were confined to families where both

parents were present).


Figure 4 shows family income levels broken into four categories for each

city. As can be seen in Figure 4, a slightly higher percentage of the

Adelaide sample was in the two lowest income groups than for the other two

cities.


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Figure 2: Birth. Order Of Children In Sample

% Of sample

Figure 3: Language Other Than English Spoken At Home By

City & Total

7. Of famllLet

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Melboarne Adelaido Perth TotAL

~ Only Enqlllh ~ Othor Lanqaaqe

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• Figure 4: Annual Family Income

e· Levels For Each Ci ty .

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. . .. .. % 01 Families

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40 ....

30

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10

< S15,000 SI5,001-$25,000

$25,001-$35,000

Family Income Levels

} $35,000

- Melbourne gmmn Adelaide ~ Pe~th

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Comparison of the sample with population

To examine the extent to which this sample represents the population it was

compared with the 1986 Census of Population on several important demographic

characteristics: birth place of mother and partner, mother's marital status,

the employment status of mother and partner, and annual family income. As

the census tape .does not identify the three cities used in this study, the

comparison was made with all metropolitan cities in Australia. Census

figures for families with children aged five (the age of most children in

the sample at the time of data collection) were appropriate when comparing

family income, marital status and the work status of the parents. However,

when comparing the birthplace of parents census figures for families with

children aged 2 or 3, the actual age of many children in the sample at the

time of the census, were more appropriate.

Table 4 compares the marital status of mothers in the sample with census

figures for mothers with children qf similar age. As can be seen there were

no significant differences between the sample and the population in terms of

marital status.

. INSERT TABLE 4 HERE

As already mentioned, Australia is now a country notable for its mixture

of many races and cultures. It was therefore important to ascertain the

extent to which this sample represents that diversity. When the sample was

compared with the population, as can be seen in Table 5, there was no

significant difference in the proportions of mothers and partners (usually

fathers) who were born in Australia or born overseas.

INSERT TABLE 5 HERE

Nevertheless, Table 6 indicates that there were significant differences

in the proportions of both mothers and partners born in different areas of

the world. Asians, both mothers and partners, were under-represented in the

sample, while both mothers and partners from the united Kingdom and Ireland

were over-represented. Thus, while there is a wide representation of

mothers and partners born in other countries, the proportions are different

from the population.

INSERT TABLE 6 HERE

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TABLE 4 MOTHER'S MARITAL STATUS

Never married Married/Defacto Separated Divorced Widowed

SAMPLE

2.0 89.5 4.4 3.6

.6

CENSUS

4.5 85 .. 1

4.8 4.5 1.1

TABLE 5 AUSTRALIAN BORN OR NOT AUSTRALIAN BORN

Born in Australia

Not born in Australia

TABLE 6 PLACE OF BIRTH

Australia UK & Ireland Europe Asia Other

MOTHER Sample Census

71.1 71.5

28.9 28.5

MOTHER Sample Census

71.1 71.5 11.6 7.5

6.3 7.0 2.2 9.3 8.8 4.7

PARTNER Sample Census

65.8 66.7

34.2 33.3

PARTNER Sample Census

65.8 66.7 13.1 8.5 10.3 10.6 1.9 9.9 9.0 4.4

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- 22 -

In comparing family income, significant differences were found between

the sample and the population (families with 5 year olds) as can be seen in

Table 7. The sample under-represents those in the lowest income bracket and

over-represents those in the middle-income bracket. Under-representation of

those in the lower income brackets is a problem often found in social

research. In this study, despite efforts to include low income mothers,

there were two aspects of stage 1 which may have turned them away: first,

the questionnaire required a reasonable level of literacy, and those with.

poorer literacy skills are often in the lower income groups; second, the

questionnaire had a rather official appearanca with the Commonwealth Crest

on the front, and may have been rejected as representing government

authority. The difference may also be related to the fact that there are

more two income families in the study than in the census.

INSERT TABLE 7 HERE

When the work status of mothers in the sample was compared with the

population (families with 5 year olds) there was a significant difference

between the two. Table 8 indicates that the sample over-represents the

proportion of mothers working for money, 50.4 per cent,. compared with 38.4

per cent in the population of mothers of five year olds in 1986. There are

two likely explanations for the greater proportion of mothers in the sample

who were in the paid workforce; first there has been an increase in the

number of mothers working since the 1986 Census, and secondly mothers who

were working may have seen the questionnaire from the Early Childhood study

as an opportunity to express their views. The employment status of partners

(usually fathers) in the sample did not differ significantly from that of

the population, as can be seen in Table 8.

INSERT TABLE 8 HERE

To sum up, the sample for Stage 1 of the study represents the population

in regard to the proportions born overseas and in Australia, in regards to

marital status and fathers' work status. However it under-represents

particular groups such as Asians, and those in the lowest family income

brackets. Families with mothers in the workforce are over-represented

however this is to our advantage as the study is particularly concerned with

the effects on children of non-maternal care, which is usualLy related to

mothers' work force participation.

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TABLE 7 ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME

Under $15,000· $15,001 - $50,000 Above $50,000

..

""

SAMPLE

13.3 74.8 12.8

--

CENSUS

21.0 61.5 17.5

TABLE 8 CURRENT EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF MOTHER AND PARTNER

In workforce Unemployed Not in labour force

MOTHER

Sample Census

50.4 38.4 8.0 4.8

41.6 '56.8

PARTNER

Sample Census

95.4 87.8 3.4 6.8 1.2 ,3.6

--

3. MOTHER'S WORK PATTERNS AND CHILD-CARE ARRANGEMENTS

As discussed in the introduction, a major trend in the 1980s has been the

increased participation of mothers in the paid workforce, partic~lar1y

mothers of pre-school children. Many women drop out of the workforce with

the birth of their first child and, if they return, often prefer part-time ~

work because it is easier to manage while caring for children. Most of the

increase in women's work has been in part-time and casual work. For

example, between 1974 and 1982, about four-fifths of the total increase in

jobs for women was in part-time and casual work, and over a third of all

women are in part-time employment compared with only 6.5 per cent of men

(Brennan and O'Donnell, 1986). Glezer, in the AIFS study of maternity

leave, found that although before the birth 62 per cent of women were

working full-time, 18 months after the birth, of those who returned to the

labour force, only 36 per cent were working full-time. She also found that

three-quarters of the women working full-time would prefer part-time work

(Glezer, 1988).

Mothers in this study were asked several questions about their work

history and care of the child since birth. They were asked the number of

hours per week, on average, that they were in paid work for each year since

the birth of the target child. These average hours, for purposes of the

analysis presented here, were recoded into three categories: not in paid

workforce; worked short hours - 1 to 19 hours; worked long hours - 20 hours

and more. The age of children for each year was calculated.from the child's

date of birth so that the work situation of mothers could be compared

although their children were born in different years. However, because of

the bias towards working women in the sample, caution should be exercised in

generalising from the findings presented here.

Figure 5 shows the workforce participation of mothers, before the child

started school, in the three categories described above. As would be

expected, mother's workforce participation increased as the child got older.

By the time the child was four years old 44 per cent of mothers were in the

paid workforce, compared with only 16 per cent in the first twelve months

after the birth of the child. Most mothers were working part-time, less

than 30 hours per week, and in each year around half were working on average

less than 20 hours a week.

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- 25 -


Traditionally Australian children have been cared for by their mothers

at home in the pre-school years. However, with the increased participation

of mothers in the workforce, more pre-school children are in non-maternal

care or non-parental care, at least for some of the time. Figure 5 also

provides information about the number of hours the target children spent in ,. .

non-parental care in the pre-school years. The average hours per week spent

in non-parental care for each year are divided into three categories: 0 to 9

hours, 10 to 19 hours, .and .. 20 .hours'·and above. As can be seen, the

proportion of children cared for by others 'for a medium number of hours (10

- 19), or for long hours (20 or more) increases as the child gets older.

The sharp increase in medium hours of non-parental' care at 4 years is

probably due to the effect of kindergarten attendance.

Non-parental child care takes many forms and can be either formal

supervised care in a centre or family daycare home, or it can be informal

unsupervised care provided by relatives, friends, or neighbours, or a paid

employee such as a baby-sitter, nanny or housekeeper. Informal care can be

provided either in the child's own home, or in the home of the carer. It is

often difficult for mothers to find a place for their child in the formal

system of child care at a location that is convenient, where there is a

vacancy, where they can afford the costs, where they are happy with the

quality of the care p~ovided, and where the hours are suitable. Some

mothers may prefer to use informal care by-relatives or others, some must

use informal care because it is cheaper or there is no cost in some

circumstances, while other mothers may have no choice but to use informal

care if they cannot find a place in the formal system.

To obtain an overview of child care used by mothers in the sample they

were asked to fill in a grid which indicated all forms of child-care used in

the daytime for each year of their child's life; the grid included maternal

and paternal care. Although mothers were able to indicate if more than one

form of care was used in any year (multiple response), the limitation of

this information was that a particular form of care may have been used just

once or many times and this could not be indicated on the grid. However,

another questidn indicating the form of care most frequently used in each

year overcame this limitation to some extent. Careful checking of responses

on this grid with later interview responses (for mothers who participated in

, "

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Figurel\!: % Of Mothers Working In First 4 Years & A:mount Of Ti:me Child Spent

In Non-Parental Care

% Of Mothers' \ \ lOO ...... -.--...... -........... -... - -----.--.. -.. _ .... -_ ........ -.- .. -- ... ----.-.... ---.-

Hrs Mother Worked

~@ At Home

~ 1 to 19 hrs

~ 20 & Above

80

60

--------------------------*- N o/Short(O-9)

-<r- Medlum(lO-19)

-&- Long(20+)

Hrs In Non-Parental

Child Care

• • •

40

20

84

0-12 1 Year 2 Years ; ~ Years 4 Years Months

Age Of Child

• • • • • • •

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- LI -

stage 2) to more detailed questioning revealed some discrepancies, but the

patterns of child care use reported are consistent and, on the whole,

accurate.

Responses to the grid on forms of child care used each year were grouped

into three categories: (i) parental care by mother or partner (mostly

mother), (ii) formal care (child care centre, creche, family daycare,

workbased child care), and (iii) informal care (care by relatives,

babysitters, nannies, siblings, friends and neighbours. As can be seen in

Figure 6, the use of formal care (i.e. child care centre, creche, family

daycare home, work-based child-care) increase~with the age of the child

(kindergarten attendance was not included). Informal care was generally

used more than formal care, probably because of availability, the range of

possible carers, and also because some parents used it in addition to formal

care. For example, before their infants were 12 months of age, 25.6 per

cent of mothers used informal care compared with 5 per cent who used formal

care. By the time children were three years of age 39.1 per cent of mothers

used informal care for' their children while only 21.6 per cent used formal

care. Some of the use of informal care may well have been for short periods

of occasional care (this may also be true of formal care although it is less

likely because formal occasional care is less available), and some mothers

were using both forms of care.


Mothers were also asked the daytime arrangements they used most for the

care of their children for each year since the birth of the child. They

were instructed that if they considered it was themselves who mostly looked

after the child during the daytime that they should indicate this. This

question was not a multiple response and only one answer could be given for

each year. Answers to this question were coded into the same categories as

above: parental care (mostly mother), formal care and informal care.

Superimposed on Figure 6 are lines representing the care arrangements which .

were most used each year. Although the use of both formal and informal care

increases as the child gets older, mothers' perception is that parents

(usually mother) play the biggest part in the daytime care of pre-school

children.

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6 Figure t(: Child Care Arrangements Used

By. Mothers During Child's First Four Years And The One Used Most

% Of Mothers Mentioning 100~~--·---------------------------------~

60

60

40

20

0-12 Months

I Y~~r

2 Years

3 Years

Age 01 Child NB. • Mul ttple Response Graph. Mothers Can Appear More Than Once For Each Age

• • • • •

4 Years

•

\ ,.

rrangements Used •

~~ Mother/Prtnr

mHI Informal

~ Formal -----------------------x- Mother/Prtnr

~ In10rmal

-t~- Formal Arrangements Used Most

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Satisfactory things about daytime child care arrangements

To obtain an overview of how mothers felt about the way in which their

children had been cared for in the pre-school years, all mothers were asked

the open-ended question: 'What do you believe were the satisfactory things

about these arrangements for caring for the child during the day?' (More

precise.information on mothers' views in relation to different forms of

child care will be available in Stage 2). More than a quarter, 28 per cent,

of mothers did not reply to this question, possibly because some did not

realise that it applied to mothers who had cared for their children at home,

or because it required a written reply. Nevertheless, it is worth examining

the responses of the mothers who did reply to obtain a very general picture

of what mothers 'in different circumstances felt was satisfactory about their

child care arrangements. In order to examine the major themes in these

replies, a coding frame was developed from a random selection of

questionnaires. Ten per cent of the sample which had been randomly selected

was coded for analysis of responses to this question (to code the whole

8,446 cases would have been too expensive and 10 per cent is sufficient to

represent the trends).

Mothers could refer to several aspects of care which they felt were

satisfactory (multiple response). The most satisfactory aspect of

arrangements, mentioned by 44 per cent of mothers (cases), was related to

the development of the child. The second aspect of child care arrangements

which 33 per cent of mothers felt was satisfactory, was a good environment;

this applied to both the child's own home and to other care environments.

The third aspect of arrangements which 19 per cent of mothers felt was

satisfactory was the feeling of personal satisfaction gained by mothers from

being the major provider of care for their children. Mothers also mentioned

time away from the child, that they were able to work, and the child's

contacts with other adults.

It is likely that mothers' satisfactions with arrangements for care

during the day will vary depending on whether they have remained at home

with the child or have been involved in the paid workforce. In order to

investigate these differences, a variable was created which shows mother's

workforce attachment during the pre-school years. This variable indicates

if mother had: (i) no workforce attachment and mother had remained at home

with the child,. (ii) some workforce attachment, mother had been in work force

but part-time and/or not continuously, and (iii) mostly worked, ie mother

- 30 -

had worked virtually continuously, although there may have been some breaks,

and/or long hours, although not necessarily full-time. [This variable was

created by using the average weekly hours mothers had been in the paid

work force each year since the child was born, ,taking into account the extent

to which work was continuous]. Figure 7 shows the percentages of. mothers in

each category.


Using the attachment to workforce variable to examine what mothers felt

were the satisfactory things about daytime arrangements for caring for the

child in the pre-school years, indicated that while the main satisfactions

remain the same, the emphasis changes somewhat as can be seen in Table 9.

For example, not un~xpectedly, the personal satisfaction of mothering was

more important to mothers who had not been in the work force (31 per cent of

responses), than to those with some workforce attachment (11.4 per cent of

responses), and those who had mostly worked and were very attached to the

workforce (4.1 per cent of responses).

INSERT TABLE 9 HERE

The following is a selection of typical quotes about personal

satisfaction with mothering from mothers who were at home and not in the

paid workforce in the pre-school years:

I know my child was brought up with a lot of care, love and

understanding, and not by some stranger.

I believe in a child spending the first five years of its life with

mother at home. We are very close and learnt and experienced many

memorable and happy times together.

All his needs could be met adequately in his own home, (he was) able to

enjoy the company of his mother. The arrangements were in the mother

and child's best interests

I love being at home and looking after my children. I've always seen

this as my responsibility and because I didn't expect anything from

anyone, when I did get a break, I loved the change, but one should not

always expect others to do their job.

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1 Figure ~: Mothers In The· Work Force

During Child's First Four Years filii'· .

5nme \I\I'O~lr _. 11 . \". 1 l ....

1'")4 .-, . , .... '"' ..

--

At Home 45.4

M ostl y \fIlrked 19.7

Per Cent Of Respondents

9 TABLE ~: SATISFACTORY THINGS ABOUT ARRANGEMENTS FOR CARING FOR

THIS CHILD DURING THE DAY BY MOTHERS' WORKFORCE ATTACHMENT

Per cent of responses

Development of the child .. ,.

Satisfaction of mothering

Time away· from child for sport, shopping, and social activities

Able to work

Child's contact with other adults

Good environment at home or child-care/kindergarten

Cost satisfactory: low, a relative and no cost, or subsidised

AT HOME

36.9

31.0

12.3

0.5

4.3

13.0

2.0

This is a multiple response question.

SOME WORK

29.0

11.4

5.0

12.0

33.1

2.0

MOSTLY WORKED

31.2

4.1

2 •. 9

17.3

12.3

29.3

2.9

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I was there to enjoy my child and guide her growing up.

Daytime care arrangements which enhanced or stimulated the development

of children were mentioned as one of the satisfactory things by a~l three

groups of mothers (37 per cent of responses for mothers at home, 29 per cent

for mothers wit~ some attachment to the workforce, and 31 per cent for

mothers who were very attached to the workforce). The following are quotes

about the development of children typical of mothers in each of the three

groups:

Child learns to become independent in a caring environment

(kindergarten), mixes with peers, learns tolerance etc. (mother at

home).

The child-care centre provided wonderful opportunities for my son's

physical, mental, and social d~velopment (mother had some attachment to

workforce).

In family daycare there was intimacy and closeness of contact between

caregivers and child because of small group situation. At the child

care centre there was social contact/interaction with other children and

a variety of activities for child development (mother had some

attachment to work force).

(Child was) exposed to different attitudes, etc. Greater freedom to

express herself in wider environment, greater exposure to other kids

(mother very attached to workforce).

A good care environment was mentioned more often by mothers in the paid

work force (some workforce attachment 33 per cent, and by mothers who mostly

worked 29 per cent), than by mothers who had remained at home with their

children (13 per cent), perhaps because mothers who remained at home took it

'for granted that the home provided a good environment. The following are

quotes in this category from mothers who worked in the pre-school years.

I can only leave my daughter with my mother because she looks after her

properly. Anywhere else they don't feed them properly and don't give

them enough attention because they have a lot of other children to look

after (mother had some work force attachment).

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My daughter has attended two child-care centres, one for 18 months, the

other for two months. The first centre was council run, subsidised by

the government to reduce fees for low income parents. (It) provided a

warm lunch, morning and afternoon tea, and when the child was ill, a

family daycare mother, at no extra cost to me, as I was a low, income

single parent at the time. The second centre had some stimulating

activities ~nd they were willing to change the sessions I had booked to

fit my changing work needs (mother had some attachment to workforce).

(Child-care was) provided at the worksite, therefore I was able to

breastfeed (both children fully breastfed ~ntil 6 months). Continuity

of care which was loving and affectionate was possible (mother had some

workforce attachment).

An amalgamation of 3 mothers working part-time, taking it in turns to

mind children was satisfactory. The kids thought of it as 'playing with

their friends' rather than being taken to child-care. I also used a

short weekly session (of child-care), which was based at a kindergarten

complex (mother had some attachment to workforce).

-Unsatisfactory things about daytime child-care arrangements

To obtain some preliminary insights into any unsatisfactory aspects of

caring for the child, all mothers were asked the open-ended question' What

do you believe were the unsatisfactory things about these arrangements for

caring for this child during the day?' Mothers could refer to several

aspects of care which they felt were unsatisfactory. A coding frame was

developed, which included all the major themes, from a random selection of

questionnaires. The same 10 per cent sample, which was used for the

previous question, was coded for analysis. However, almost two-thirds of

mothers did not reply to this question, perhaps because they felt nothing

was particularly unsatisfactory with their care arrangements, or perhaps

because they did not think the question applied to them. It is worth

examining responses from mothers who answered the question~ to explore the

range of reasons for dissatisfaction, although, this information should be

seen as exploratory only and not for generalisation. The mother's interview

at Stage 2 of the study will provide more precise information about

satisfaction or lack of it with particular care situations and in particular

circumstances.

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The most unsatisfactory aspect of care, as reported by 31 per cent of

those mothers (cases) who replied to the question, was difficulty with

finding appropriate care and/or preferred type of care, at suitable times

and reasonable costs. Seventeen per cent of mothers reported personal

dissatisfaction with being tied down by the child, another 14 per cent of

mothers reported daily problems, such as early rising and the long day,

coping with illness and other difficulties of everyday life with young

children. Fourteen per cent of mothers also reported feeling guilty leaving

the child in the care of others and not having enough time with the child.

Mothers' responses to this question are likely to vary depending on

whether they are in the paid workforce or not. In order to investigate any

differences, the variable indicating work force attachment, which was

described earlier, was used to differentiate responses. As expected, Table

10 shows some differences in the responses depending on whether mothers had

been in the paid workforce or remained at home with the child in the pre

school years. Guilt about leaving the child in the care of others was

expressed more often by mothers with some attachment to the workforce (15

per cent of responses) or who were very attached to the workforce (20 per

cent of responses), rather than by mothers who were not in the workforce (6

per cent of responses).

INSERT TABLE 10 HERE

The following are.typical responses from mothers in the workforce:

I only spent half the day with my daughter and I feel that wasn't

enough, but I had to work. (mother had some attachment to the workforce)

Worry, guilty feeling. Hated parting with them and disturbing their

routine. (mother had some attachment to workforce)

.Not being with the child to see the little things they do and say whilst

growing up prior to school age. (mother very attached to the

workforce).

Difficulties with certain aspects of care were mentioned by mothers

whether they were in the paid work force or remained at home with their

children (26 per cent of responses for mothers at home, 30 per cent of

responses for mother with some workforce attachment, 24 per cent of

\0 . TABLE ~: UNSATISFACTORY THINGS ABOUT ARRANGMENTS FOR CARING FOR

THIS CHILD DURING THE DAY BY MOTHERS' WORKFORCE ATTACHMENT

Per cent of responses

Parent's guilt, not enough time with child ..

,,"

Daily problems:long day, driving, hurrying etc

Poor quality of care

Child affected by different social environment and carers

Difficulties with aspects of care: times, finding, cost,

AT HOME

5.8

3.6

1.7

4.3

inappropriateness 26.2

Personal dissatisfaction, tied down by child 35.2

Effect of other children: infection, different standards

Other

4.9

18.3

This is a multiple response question

--

SOME WORK

15.0

18.5

8.9

5.7

30.4

4.9

5.9

10.7

MOSTLY WORKED

20.1

12.8

12.7

11.1

23.3

0.0

7.4

12.4

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responses for mothers who were very attached to the workforce and mostly

worked). However, the concerns of mothers in the workforce were somewhat

different from those of mothers who stayed at home, as can be seen in the

following quotes:

Family day care as such was not available to the average suburban mother

on a part-t~me basis - ie one day or one and a half days a week. (It

is) fully booked out by full-time single working mothers and is not

available to give full-time mothers a break!

child)

(mother at home with

. The only times I wanted a break was to go shopping alone (clothes etc).

I wish you could leave your child at an independent care centre and go

on your own. Sometimes, leaving your children with relatives leaves you

obligated. (mother at home with child).

It was difficult to find facilities where my child could be put in care

while I attended to necessary business tasks. The local government

funded day-care centre would not consider putting my child in care

unless I was in paid employment, but gave priority to working parents,

regardless of marital status or combined income. I found this policy

most unsatisfactory, especially where circumstances of special needs

were not even considered. (mother at home with child)

Child care at home is very expensive, but I needed it for my other two

children after school as well (as this child).

workforce attachment)

Work did not have any child care facilities.

attachment)

(mother had some

(mother had some workforce

Expense factor - good child care centres are very expensive, and if

subsidised, they are constantly under threat of funding cutbacks which

in turn affects morale of staff. (mother had some workforce attachment)

It is unsatisfactory that child care costs so very much. After spending

$90 to $100 per week on child care you certainly are not left with very

much. Why are we b~ing penalised just because we want and need to go to

work!! Is this equal opportunity?

workforce)

(mother very attached to the

- 38 -

The burden on my parents (of child care). The cost of formal child

care. Long hours of separation during the day.

to workforce)

(mother very attached

Personal dissatisfaction with being tied down by the child wa~ expressed

more by mothers who were at home with their child and not in the work force

(35 per cent of~responses) than by those who were in the p~id work force (5

per cent of responses for mothers with some work force attachment and not

mentioned at all by mothers who were very attached to the workforce). The

following are typical responses from mothers who were not in. the paid

work force and who expressed personal dissatisfaction:

The only unsatisfactory thing is selfish - very little space for mum to

do her own thing. But I would never change the situation if I did it

all over again.

Mothers are tied down and rarely can achieve any personal satisfaction

apart from child raising. Too long at home can make one less aware of

one's worth.

That I had no freedom, that is, complete freedom from him when things

got too much. It was always a battle on shopping days.

I needed 'time out' to be a person, other than a survival kit to a

child.

More mothers who were attached to the work force expressed

dissatisfaction with daily problems in caring for children (19 per cent of

responses of those with some workforce attachment and 13 per cent of

responses of those who were very attached to the workforce) than mothers who

were at home (4 per cent of responses). The following are typical responses

from mothers in the paid workforce.

Long absences from the family. (mother had some attachment to workforce)

(Child care was) not always reliable, i.e. last minute arrangements

sometimes necessary. Occasionally I was reluctant to ask for help

because I felt it was an imposition. (mother had some attachment to

workforce)

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Picking her up after working late. (mother had some attachment to

workforce)

The constant rush from home to grandmother's, interrupted sleeps.

(mother had some attachment to workforce)

When the ch;ld was ill it caused a dilemma. (mother very attached to

workforce)

Difficulties when child was sick. Some days the child was tired by the -end of the day. (mother very attached to the workforce)

Mothers who had been in the paid workforce in their child's pre-school

years were also more likely to report problems with poor quality of care (13

per cent of mothers who were very attached to the workforce, 9 per cent of

mothers with some attachment to the workforce compared with 2 per cent of

mothers who were not in the paid workforce.) The following responses are

typical of mothers with work force attachment in the pre-school years.

Child-care centre - too many children under the care of few care-takers.

and we the parents had little say in who was employed to look after the

children. (mother with some workforce attachment)

Her creche did not seem to have many structured activities. She came

home quite bored and not wanting to return. (mother with some workforce

attachment)

I now feel he would have been better off with more young children his

own age. The lady who looked after him was very busy and I feel he

missed out on attention. (mother with some work force attachment)

Being cared for by friends and baby-sitters limited my son's activities

and learning ability. (mother very attached to the workforce)

Missing out on child's development, lack of care given by minders, very

hard to cope under these conditions. (mother very attached to workforce)

- 40 -

Who paid for child-care?

Child care is often very expensive although it may cost nothing or very

little if the child is cared for informally by a relative or if the mother

is eligible for a government subsidy and the child is in formal care of some

kind. All mothers were asked 'Who mainly covered the costs involved in

child care?' H9wever, as mothers with no workforce attachment in the pre

school years had used child care very little, usually only for occasional

care, they were omitted from analysis.

Figure 8 shows the distribution of costs for-mothers in the labour force

divided into two groups: those with some workforce attachment and those who

mostly worked and were very attached to the workforce. A high proportion

of mothers with some work force attachment as well as those who had mostly

worked had costs associated with child care.


Mothers with some work force attachment were more likely to have no costs

associated with child care than those who mostly worked and were very

attached to the workforce. This is probably because the hours they required

child care were shorter, and for some mothers child care was required for

intermittent periods only. In addition, child care for short time spans can

sometimes be provided by the parents themselves (by shift work and fitting

their work times around child care), or by relatives. Mothers who were very

attached to the workforce,- on the other hand, required care that was

continuous over the years and usually for longer hours. It was therefore

probably more difficult for them to manage care without cost involved. As

can be seen, fathers rarely covered the costs of child care alone, although

mothers frequently did, but the most common arrangement was that both

parents covered the costs.

Now the child is at school

The previous section was concerned with mothers' work and child care

arrangements in the pre-school years. At the time of data collection the

target children were in their first year of school. By this time (see

Figure 9) more than half the mothers in the sample were in the paid

workforce, although 3 per cent of mothers were temporarily out of the

workforce (1 per cent on workcare or sickness benefits and 2 per cent on

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• g Figure ~: Persons Covering Child.care

• 'Costs For Mothers In The Worklorce At Any T"irne In Child's Pre-school Years

• . % Of Mothers .. 60~------------------~------------~

• 50 49.7

• 40

30 28.3·

• 22.2

20

• 10

• o Some Work Mostly Worked

Degree 01 Attachment To Workforce

~ No Costs mj~m Partner ~ Self ~ Both

- 42 -

maternity leave). Less than half the mothers were not in the paid workforce

and were not looking for work. Seventy-nine per cent of those mothers who

were in the paid workforce were working for someone outside the home; 9 per

cent worked in a family business and 9 per cent were self employed. Only 4

per cent of mothers worked from their home for someone else.

INSERT FIGURE 9 .~HERE

All mothers were asked what their work preference would be if they had

their choice (this question applied both to mothers in the workforce and

those at home not looking for work). The majority of mothers, as can be

seen in Figure 10, indicated that they would like to work part-time. Only

11 per cent indicated that they would like to work full-time, and the

remaining 12 per cent of mothers would prefer not to be in the labour force.

Figure 11 shows the work preferences of mothers in relation to their current

employment status. Part-time work was favoured by most mothers regardless

of their current work situation. Hore than half the mothers who were

working full-time would have preferred part-time work. Most mothers who

were actually working part-time preferred this situation. Most mothers who

were unemployed but looking for work would prefer part-time work. The

preferences of mothers not in the paid workforce are also of interest: only

about a fifth, would prefer to remain outside the workforce; most would like

part-time work, and only 5 per cent would like full-time work. Quite

clearly, part-time work is preferred by mothers with children who have just

commenced school. Glezer (1988) in the AIFS study of maternity leave found

a similar strong preference for part-time work by mothers of~young children.

INSERT FIGURES 10 AND 11 HERE

After school care is sometimes a problem for mothers in the paid

workforce. All mothers were asked who cares for the child after school.

Figure 12 shows the way in which the child who was the focus of the study

was cared for after school and whether the mother was in employment or not.

The majority of children were cared for by their mothers. As can be seen

partners (fathers) took a very small part in after school care, probably

because they were unavailable due to work force participation. A very small

. percentage of families used an after school care centre, the rest relied on

relatives, older children, neighbours, and paid babysitters to care for the

child after school.

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9 Figure ~: Mothers' Current

Work Status

PT V/ark 34%

........................... .......................... ..................................... -"."' "" '''' ............................. ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................

Unemployed Loc!( i ng

............................ ............................. ............................. ............................. ............................... ............................... .................................. .................................. .................................. ..................................

Of Mother:)

13%

Sick ,Matern i ty Leave

Lookino '-

42%

10 Figure ~: Mothers' Employment

Preferences

............................. ............................. ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................

Full Time Work 1]%

!'''Io Paid 'Nark 11%

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.............................. :: :::::::::: ::::: :::: :::::::: ::::: . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;;1~~~;~~;;;;;;::::::::::~~~~;~~;;~~~~~;;~;~~;~E~~;i -:::::::: ::: ::::: ::: :::::::::::: ::: ::::::::: ::::::::::::::: :::::::: ::: ~ . ...................................................................... ~ ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::, ...................................................................... , .... ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::: ::~

:::::::: ::::::::::::: :::::: :::: ::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::!

'll\\lllllllllllillllllllillllilllllilllilillilil!llli11111' • Part Ti me Wort

78%

..................................................

0;0 Of tv10thers

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\ \ Figure ~ Mothers' Employment

Preference By Current Work Status .. ..

100~------------------------~--------,

92

--80···

60

40

20

Work FT Work PT Unemployed Nt Workng Looking Nt Looking

Current Work Status

~ Prefer FT [g~~1 Prefer PT IlmWl Prefer No Work

- 46 -


As can be seen in Table 11 further analysis indicated, not unexpectedly,

that it was the group of mothers who were working full-time who mostly used

people other than themselves and their partners to care for their children.

Even so, 42 per cent of the children whose mothers worked full-time were

cared for after school by their parents. Relatives cared for 19 per cent,

while the rest of these children were cared for by other people. Most part

time workers, 88 per cent, cared for their children themselves after school.

Part-time work is less likely to make after school care a problem for

mothers.


Conclusions

The analysis reported here indi~ates that many pre-school children whose

mothers are in the work force experience non-parental care, but more c~ildren

at each age level examined are in informal care than are in formal care.

Nevertheless, mothers still ~erceive themselves or their partner as taking

the major role in the daytime care of their children. As children get older

mothers' work force participation increases and children's experience of non

parental care also increases. Most families have costs associated with

child care, but families where mothers were less attached to the workforce

had no child care costs more often than those where mother mostly worked.

The majority of mothers, including those working full-time in the child's

first year of school and those not working at all, would prefer to work

part-time.

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\J-Figure ~: Person Who Usually Cares

For Child Alter School - Mothers Employed And· Not Employed

Sel1 .9

Partner

Both

Older Child

Othr Relative

Neighbour

Paid Si tter

Care Cntr

Varies

Other

o 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

_ Employed ~ Not Employed

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\ \ TABLE J{&: CARE OF THE CHILD AFTER SCHOOL • CARER FIT WORK PIT WORK AT HOME ALL

% % % %

Self (mother) 27.0 79.2 94.9 80.8 • Partner (usually father) 8.3 .9 .4 1.6 -Both parents, different days 6.2 7.3 2.2 4.5 • Older sibling 5.1 .5 .1 .9 -Other relatives 14.0 1.8 .2 2.5

Neighbours 2.1 .5 .0 .5 • Paid babysitter 13.2 1.9 .1 2.4

After school centre 12.5 1.4 .4 2.3

Arrangements vary 7.3 5.6 1.2 3.5 • Child left alone .1 .0

Someone else 4.2 .8 .5 1.1

TOTAL 12.9 34.4 52.8 100.0 •

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4. • AN EAR TO LISTEN AND A SHOULDER TO CRY ON':

THE USE OF CHILD HEALTH SERVICES IN MELBOURNE, ADELAIDE AND PERTH

Child health services are the only service which is free and universally

available to mothers and infants. Stage one of the Institute's Early

Childhood study provided the opportunity to examine current use of child ,. health services in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and also to make some

assessment of the extent to which these services are meeting the needs of

modern-day mothers of infants and young children. Mothers were asked three

questions about their use of child health serVices for the particular child:

how often they used the service, how helpful it was, and what they thought

about the child health service in their state. Before examining the use and

helpfulness of child health services in recent times, these services in

Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia are described and their

development placed in historical context.

Child health services today

Child health services aim at improving the health and wellbeing of infants

and. young children so that optimal physical, emotional and social

development is possible. They began early this century when infant

mortality was high due to gastric infections, poor hygiene and poor living

conditions (Gandevia, 1978).

Unlike Britain, which has a health visitor scheme and home visiting is

usual (Mayall and Foster, 1989), child health services in Australia provide

support for mothers and children essentially through locally based centres,

although the first visit may be in the home and arrangements can be made for

home visits, on request, in special circumstances. Nurses in child health

services are fully qualified and. have training and/or relevant experience in

maternal and child health. (Victorian and Western Australian child health

nurses are triple certificated, South Australian nurses are required to have

basic nursing training, but it is regarded as highly desirable that they

also have further specialist qualifications and/or experience).

In Victoria hospitals notify nurses in the local government area of

births. Child health nurses make the first contact with mothers either by

hospital or home visit. South Australia has a video about the service which

is shown to mothers while still in hospital. The service provides advice on

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- 50 -

feeding and on the general day-to-day care of the baby; health checks of

such things as vision, hearing, language and general development are also

routinely provided. Information about immunisation and health needs is

given, and mothers are put in touch with other relevant services. Some

centres run parenting education sessions, particularly for parents of first

babies; there are also play groups for young children and toddlers in some

centres. Services differ somewhat from one area to the other, often due to

differences between the nurses in charge and their ideas about the scope of

their role. South Australia differs from the other States because it

combines child, adolescent and family health services; however, services for

babies and pre-school children, which are provided through Child Health

Centres, are essentially the same as in the other states (Information

brochures from child health services in Victoria, Western Australia, and

South Australia.)

Child health services in each state provide mothers with a booklet in

which to keep a record of their child's development, immunisation, and

health. South Australia provides the most comprehensive of these with the

Personal Health Records book which is issued in the hospital on the birth of

a child and includes details of the birth. This booklet is designed as a

complete health record of the individual child and is held first by parents

and then passed on to the children when they reach an age of responsibility.

The booklet, which contains the telephone numbers of emergency services and

of local Child Health and Adolescent Centres, is divided into sections to

record all aspects of the child's health and development; it includes also a

section on family events as well as simple advice on caring for a new baby.

Each state has brochures explaining to new parents the functions of

child health services and encouraging their use; these are distributed by

the hospitals and other centres and are also available in the major

community languages. The following quote from the Victorian Maternal and

Child Health Service brochure shows how an attempt is made to go beyond the

bounds of basic child health, nutrition and developmental issues, and into

the realms of parenting and family support.

Becoming a parent means learning lots of new things and you can't be

expected to know it all at once. Feel free to ask your nurse all those

questions that probably didn't even occur to you before the baby arrived

or just talk about your concerns. Each baby has its own personality and

it takes time for you to know your baby and your baby to know you.

- 51 -

A brief history of child health services

This section contains a brief description of the beginnings of child health

services in Australia. An understanding of the development of child health

services helps put current services into context.

Awareness of. community responsibility for the maintenance of health ~

occurred increasingly, in developed countries, in the period between 1890

and 1920. It was a time of advances in scientific knowledge and the

implementation of measures to promote public health; there was recognition

that disease and accidents could be prevented or controlled through human

efforts and that illness and death of children did not have to be passively

accepted as "God's will" (Gandevia, 1978; Zelizer, 1985). In the early part

of this century legislation was enacted concerning sanitation, water

supplies and the notification of infectious diseases. Medical and

scientific advances led to safer milk supplies with effective supervision of

dairy herds to eliminate tubercular,cattle. Ironically it was around the

time that safe milk supplies became available that it was recognised that

breast fed infants suffered less from gastric infections (Gandevia, 1978);

it was also around this time that interest -in promoting the health of 'well'

babies developed.

Overseas knowledge and developments had a direct bearing on the

development of infant health services in Australia. The first International

Child Health Conference was held in 1905 in Paris, the city in which Infant

Welfare work had begun in 1880. The first English speaking Child Welfare

conference was held in I.ondon in 1913 (CAFHS, c.1989). Various approaches

were taken in Australia to improve child health and organisations were

formed to ensure that mothers were educated in the care of infants and

children. As a result of both education and public health measures infant

mortality declined in the early part of this century. Nevertheless,

services to mothers and babies were seen initially as a threat by some

medical practitioners.

The development of infant welfare organisations, usually initiated by

voluntary action but ultimately government sponsored or controlled, in

the first two decades of the present century was an inevitable step.

The advisory clinics established by these groups did meet with some

opposition on the grounds that they constituted an intrusion into

private medical practice, which indeed they were. However, as with

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other state medical services, such as compulsory immunisation, they

filled a need not adequately covered by conventional medical practice,

and they were led, or supported, by prominent physicians, such as Wood,

Turner and Vera Scantlebury Brown, concerned with paediatrics, whose

integrity and dedication were unquestioned. The risk that trained

nurses might replace the doctor in a significant segment of child care

did not eventuate, although in more recent years some problems arose ~

with the suggestion that infant welfare teaching in the centres had

become too rigid, ritualistic and authoritarian. For the most part, the

principle that the clinic nursing staff should refer sick children to

medical practitioners was followed~ •• (Ganaevia, 1978, 125).

The first person to organise support for infant welfare in Australia was

W.G. Armstrong, medical officer of health for Sydney, who had studied

problems of infant mortality and child welfare in England and France. He

saw the need to educate mothers in the care of infants and young children as

imperative and recognised the benefits of breast feeding rather than

improving the supply of sterilised milk. In 1904 Armstrong employed a

health visitor to go to the homes of all mothers of newborn babies. Child

mortality in Sydney, which was already in decline due to public health

measures, continued to decline over the next decade, from 116 per 1,000

births to 68 per 1,000 births, while the proportion of mothers breast

feeding increased from 72 per cent to 94 per cent by 1914 (MacOonald, 1975;

Gandevia, 1978). other states followed similar processes in developing

their infant health services. A brief description of the development of

these services in the three states which took part in the Institute's Early

Childhood Study follows in chronological order.

South Australia (Child, Adolescent and Family Health Service): Thomas

Borthwick, in Adelaide, introduced a system similar to that-operating in

Sydney in 1907, although it was short lived; it was Or Helen Mayo, who had

studied paediatrics in London, who had a more substantial impact. She

founded the School for Mothers in 1909, which in 1927 became the Mothers and

Babies Health Association. The first baby health train began operating in

country areas in 1931 and in 1934 a highly successful baby health centre was

conducted at the Royal Adelaide Show. A correspondence section was

introduced to the service in 1935 to help mothers in areas where there were

no clinics; work in country areas was extended in 1936. South Australia had

the lowest infant mortality rate in the world by 1937.

- 53 -

In 1979-80 a report on the South Australian Child Health .Services, which

pointed out the importance of integrated services, led to the amalgamation

of the Mothers and Babies Health Association, the School Health Service and

the Child Adolescent and Family Psychiatric Service into the present Child

Adolescent and Family Health Service (C.A.F.H.S.).

Victoria (Maternal and Child Health Service): No organised service for the ~

welfare of children existed in Victoria before 1917; medical attention was

for sick infants and children only. Voluntary welfare a~sociations

developed between 1917 and 1926. The first service for the welfare of

normal babies was set up by Or Isabel Younger ~oss in a small: shop in

Richmond in 1917; Or Ross was influenced by work on the welfare of well

infants which she had seen in England. Advice at this centre was free and

the service was popular; other centres were set up and public interest grew.

In 1918 the Victorian Baby Health Centres Association was formed. A

deputation by this association to the Minister for Health resulted in a

government subsidy of 125 pounds pe~ annum for the employment of full-time

nurses, on the condition that local councils made an equal contribution to

the costs. Nevertheless, a great deal of money still had to be raised by

centre auxiliaries to fund operations. The Association also set up a school

in South Melbourne to train double certificated nurses to take charge of

centres (Campbell, 1976).

In 1926, as the result of a government Royal Commission into the welfare

of women and children in Victoria, the Infant Welfare Section of the

Department of Health was created with Or Vera Scantlebury Brown as the first

Director of Infant Welfare. Notification of births to local municipal

offices within 24 hours was made mandatory and these notifications were

passed on to Infant Welfare sisters. As had been recommended in the report

of the Royal Commission, Infant Welfare Centres were subsidised by state

government while municipal councils provided premises and part payment of

nurses. Efforts were made to reach every infant in the state; in 1935,

using a grant from the Victorian Centenary Council, a caravan which provided

roadside services to country mothers and babies was set up. A

correspondence service for mothers was also created; this service sent out

leaflets on child management and mothers could also write for advice on

their particular needs (Campbell, 1976; Poulter, 1976).

In 1976, a Jubilee Conference on Maternal and Child Health was held to

mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Infant Welfare Section

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of the Department of Health, Victoria. The Infant Welfare section moved

from the Department of Health to Community Services Victoria in 1985. Soon

after, when staff changed their titles from Infant Welfare nurses to

Maternal and Child Health nurses, the service followed suit and became the

Maternal and Child Health Service. Maternal and Child Health Service is

jointly funded by state and local government.

Western Australia (Child Health Services): The Infant Health movement in

Western Australia commenced in 1923 when three clinics staffed by Infant

Health nurses opened in Perth. At thetime·infant mortality in western

Australia was higher·than in the other-states;· this was largely due to the

influx of people and poor living conditions in gold rush towns where fresh

water was in short supply (MacDonald, 1975; C.A.F.H.S, c.1989). Although

much of the drop in i:nfant mortality in the goldfields could be attributed

to the building of a water pipeline from Perth to Kalgoorlie, the work of

the infant health clinics contributed to the all round fall in infant deaths

from gastro-enteritis and to improvement in infant health (MacDonald,

1975) •

By 1926 there were 10 clinics in Western Australia; in 1932 Municipal

Councils were given the power to subsidise Infant Health Centres. In the

same year a correspondence section was established which communicated with

mothers in the outback through pedal wireless or letter. Later nurses from

this section also travelled twice a year to visit these outback mothers. In

1954 families on the Nullabor Plain were provided with health services via

the "Tea and Sugar" train (a. train which carried stores to people in that

area) (Child Health Services, c.1972). Infant health services in western

Australia were reorganised into the Infant Pre-school Health Service in 1952

in recognition of the fact that there was continued risk to children's

health.in the second and third years of life. This service was changed in

1972 to the current Child Health Services.

I

Present use of child health services in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth

Conditions in Australia are now very different from when.child health

services commenced. Infant mortality has improved considerably; in 1988

infant mortality was 8.7 per thousand live births (ABS, 1988). Infectious

diseases and nutritional deficiencies are no longer major problems and most

.. women these days are better educated than when child health services began.

- 55 -

However, as indicated in the introduction, there are many other changes

which may affect the care of young children and which have changed the

social context in which they are reared.

Modern mothers often experience great anxiety about their capacity to

parent. Whereas parents earlier this century were likely to have real

concerns about the physical health of the child, modern parents are often -\ more concerned about the emotional health of the child. This is part of a

trend of parental anxiety, but particularly maternal anxiety, throughout the

western world. This anxiety about parenting capacity has developed over the

twentieth century with greater knowledge of cHild development and the

importance of environment, higher expectations of parents and of children,

and as a result of conflicting theories of child rearing in self help books

and the media. All of this is related to the fact that humans learn how to

be parents from others, and that unlike animals, they do not instinctively

know the correct things to do with their babies (Ochiltree, 1990).

Child health services are used by most mothers; the majority of mothers

in the sample, 87.3 per cent, had used the infant health service in their

state for the selected child. Figure 13 shows the frequency of use of

services for each city and the total sample: a greater percentage of

Melbourne mothers, 90.2 per cent, had been users than had Adelaide mothers,

81.2 per cent, and Perth mothers 8S.1 per cent. A recent South Australian

study of the first year of parenting reported 94 per cent of mothers in the

sample used child health services, however there were only 49 mothers in

their sample (Southern Community Health Services, 1990).


In order to obtain more precise information about which mothers did not

use child health services or used them very little, the following

characteristics of families were examined in relation to the question on

frequency of use: position of child in the birth order, whether a language

other than English was spoken in the home, family income, and workforce

participation of mothers in the first twelve months of the child's life.

Just over a tenth of mothers in the total sample, 12.6 per cent had not

used child health services for the child involved in the study (ie the child

who had started primary school that year); they may have used-it for other

children, if they had any but this information was not collected. There

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13 Figure $: Use Of Child Health

Services By Ci ty & Total Sample

% 01 Mothers 60~·----------------------------------~

50 .............. .

Never Used

1 to 5 Times

················48

6 to 20 Times

More Than 20 Times

Use 01 Child -Health Services

~ Melbourne' I:~gm Adelaide ~ Perth ~ Total

- ~I -

were some differences between the states as can be seen in Figure 13; more

Adelaide (18.8 per cent) and Perth (14.9 per cent) mothers had not used the

service than Melbourne mothers (9.8 per cent), and Melbourne mothers appear

to be the most frequent users.

The child's position in the family was coded to reflect whether the

child was the first born (a category which also included only children), ~

last born, or a middle child. Figure 14 shows the use of child health

services by the position of the target child in the family birth order. As

might be expected, mothers of first born children were more frequent users

than mothers of later born children; 43.7 per cent of mothers of first born

children used child health services more than twenty times, compared with

32.5 per cent of mothers of middle children, and 26.4 per cent of mothers of

last born children. Mothers of last born children were more often non-users

of child health services or used the services only a few times compared with

mothers of first born children. It is not surprising that mothers of last

born children make somewhat less use of child health services than mothers

of first born children, as these mothers are more experienced and may not

feel the same need for advice as do first-time less experienced mothers.

However, many mothers of later born children do use child health services

notwithstandin9 their previous experience.


As Australia has so many migrants, some of whom speak a language other

than English in the home, it is important to examine the extent to which

child health services were used by these mothers in the sample. Figure 15

shows the frequency of use of services by mothers from families where a

language other than English is spoken in the home compared with use by

mothers who came from English speaking homes. As can be seen, almost three

times as many mothers who come from families where a language other than

English is spoken, have not used child health services compared with mothers

from English speaking homes. These mothers generally made less use of child

health services than other mothers with only 26.3 per cent using the service

more than 20 times compared with 37.1 per cent of mothers from English

speaking homes.


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. Figure ~ Use 01 Child Health Services By Position Ot Child

In Birth Order

% 01 Children 60r---------------------------~

60 43.7

40

30

20

10

~~~~L-~~~~~~=-~~~~

Never 1 to 6 6 to 20 ) 20 tried TlmOl Tlmel TimOl

Use Of Child Health Services

~ Pin' aa.a g 10(1441. CIl1l4 IZi2 La' aa ...

16 Figure f. Use Of Child Health Service

By Whether Non-English Language Spoken In The Home

To Of Motbora 60

1

26.8

"I 30[

::f .~ IIIII~ \ ... . , ... .

o , .. :. Never tried

16

12.4 :::: :\ ....

~~ :::: ~::::

1 to 5 TlmOl

6 to 20 Tlmel

)20 TlmOl

Use 01 Child Health Services

~ Ocly ECQ'llJb G otbor LacQ'U<Iqo

...

- 59 -

Low income may affect the use of services even where there is no cost

involved. Figure 16 indicates that the lower the family income the less

likely mothers were to use child health services. The higher income groups

generally used child health services more frequently. However, it must be

noted that the measure of income used here is family income at the time of

data collection (when the child was in the first year of school) and will

only give a rou9h indication of family income in past years; family income

is also closely connected to mother's current work situation as it includes

mother's income ~s well as father's income. However, the assumption is made

that in general income levels now are relative to those when the child was

an infant.


As already discussed, mothers of pre-school children are increasingly

entering the work force before their children start school. Of the 8,446

mothers in the sample used in analysis, 1210 (14.3 per cent) returned to

work in the first year of their child's life.

Mothers were asked in the questionnaire to indicate the average numbers

of hours per week in the paid workforce for each year since the birth of the

target child. This information, along with information on the birth data

of the child, was used to create a variable that indicated mother's work

pattern for each year of the child's life. Figure 17 is based on the

average hours worked by mothers when their children were under twelve months

of age. As can be seen, Figure 17 indicates that a greater percentage of

mothers working medium (20 to 29 hours per week) or long hours (more than 30

per week) did not use child health services at all, or used them only a few

times, compared with mothers who did not work at all or who worked shorter

hours. Mothers who did not work outside the home or those who worked

shorter hours in the child's first year used child health services more

often than mothers who were working longer hours.


No analysis could be carried out to find if family type.influenced the

use of child health services when the child was an infant, as information

about family structure referred only to when the child was in the first year

of school and did not necessarily indicate the family situation when the

child was under twelve months of age.

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Ib Figure /. Use 01 Child Health

Services By Annual Family Income

'I. or famlllet 60r-------------------------______ -.

40

30

20

lO

I - Ii Tlm ••

Use Of ChUd Health Services

~ ($Ui.OOO

~ 126.001-$36.000

\1

~ $16.001-$25.000

B ) $35.000

Figure f: Use Of Child Health Services By Average Weekly Hours In Paid Work

During Child's First Year Of Life

'I. or Mothers 50r---------------------__________ ~

40

30

20

lO

I - Ii Tlm ••

Wo .. TbaD 20 Tlm ••

Use Of Child Health Services

~ Dlc1D'" Wort:

~ 20-29 Bouro

G 1-19 Boan

g ) 30 Boan

\

- 61 -

In summary, the characteristics associated with non-use or little use of

child health services were: use of a language other than English in the

home, low family income, the child's later position in the birth order and

whether mother worked medium to long hours in the first year of the child's

life. However, it must be kept in mind that these mothers may have used

child health se;vices for another child, particularly in the case of mothers

of later born children.

Multi-variate analysis was used to further examine the relationship

between the four independent variables - income, language other than English

spoken at home, child's position in the birth order and mother's work

pattern in the first year of the child's life - and the dependent variable,

use of child health services. Because the dependent variable was nominal

and only 12 per cent of the sample was in the non-use category, while the

other 88 per cent of the sample had used child health services, log linear

modelling was chosen as a suitable ~ulti-variate technique. In this

analysis the dependent variable 'use of child health services' was recoded

into two categories only, 'use' and , , non-use •

. Log. linear analysis, using a saturated model, indicated that all second

order associations, that is associations between two of the variables while

controlling for the effects of the others, were significant, with the

exception of the association between language and position in the birth

order. Third order associations were not significant (that is associations

between three of the variables while controlling for the effects of the

others). The separate associations between each of the independent

variables - family income, position in the birth order, language other than

English spoken in the home, mother's work pattern in the first year of the

child's life and the dependent variable' use of child health services, can be

seen in Table 12. All associations were significant at .01, with the

exception of that between mother's work and use of child health services,

which was significant at .04.


The partial Chi-squares and degrees of freedom indicated that income and

language used in the home had stronger associations with use of child health

services than either the position of the child in the family Gr the mother's

work pattern in the child's first year which had the weakest relationship

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• TABLE 12: TESTS OF PARTIAL ASSOCIATION (second order. effects only>

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Effect name

Language*position in birth order

Language*mothe~'s work

DF

2

in first year 1

Position in birth order *mother's work in first year 2

Language*family income 3

Position in the birth order*family income

Mother's work in first

6

year*family income 3

Language*child health service use

Position in birth order *child health service use

1

2

.' Mother's work in first year*child health service use 1

Family income*child health service use 3

Partial ChiSq. Probe

4.795 .09

11.376 .01

36.555 .01

167.192 .01

39.071 .01

88.287 .01

180.681 .01

25.110 .01

4.435 .04

92.791 .01

- 63 -

with use of child health services. However, it is worth noting that

although family income and language other than English spoken in the home

each individually have an association with use of child health services, the

effect of each is independent of the other. The association between the

two, and use of child health services is not significant (that is the third

order effects); in other words they represent separate groups.

Mothers' views of child health services

Mothers were also asked the open-ended question 'What do you think about the

Child Health Service?' (the appropriate name ~or the service in each state

was used). To examine underlying patterns in these responses a coding frame

was developed from a random selection of questionnaires. The randomly

selected ten per cent of the sample, mentioned in the last section, was

coded for analysis.

Table 13 shows the themes which,emerged from the responses and the

percentage of responses in each category; Table 13 also shows the percentage

of mothers who made particular comments. As some mothers made more than one

comment the percent of cases (mothers) in the table totals to more than 100

per. cent in this table.


Three major themes (or categories) emerged from the coded responses of

mothers. As can be seen in Table 13, just under a quarter; 23.1 per cent,

of responses referred to the usage of child health services by first time

mothers, and/or for young babies. Another 23.1 per cent of responses

mentioned the quality of advice and staff training or a description of the

service they had received. The social value of child health· service, what

it provides (or does not provide) for mothers and the community in general

was the third major theme and was referred to in 23.2 per cent of responses.

However, within all categories the responses could have both positive and

negative elements, although most were positive. To examine mothers'

responses to child health services more critically it is useful to look at

these responses from the perpective of mothers who found the services

helpful compared with those who were not helped.

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TABLE 13: COMMENTS ON CHILD HEALTH SERVICES

CATEGORY

First mothers, young babies useful, good

Staff personal qualities, age,~ motherhood requirements of staff

Quality of advice , and of training, description of service received

Social contact, referral point

Social value, service needed, description of what service does (or does not) provide

Positive and negative comment in one response

Particular situation described 'one-off'

Basic short comment

Other

PER CENT OF RESPONSES

23.1

9.4

23.1

2.6

23.2

5.0

1.4

10.6

1.6

100.0

PER CENT OF CASES

29.8

12.0

29.7

3.4

29.8

6.5

1.8

13.6

2.0

128.7

(This is a multiple reponse question. Mothers could make more than one comment.)

- 65 -

Mothers who were helped

Ninety-five per cent of mothers who had used child health services found

them helpful; 41.5 per cent found them very helpful, and 53.3 per cent

helpful. Figure 18 shows how mothers in the three cities ranked the

helpfulness of child health services in their city.


For mothers who felt that they had been helped, responses to the

question 'What do you think about child healt~ service?' fell. into the same

three major categories reported above, but in larger proportions: 31 per

cent referred to the usage of the service for first time mothers and for

young babies, 31 per cent referred to the social value of child health

service and what it provides or does not provide for mothers and the

community in general, 29 per cent mentioned the quality of the advice, the

quality of staff training and/or a ?escription of the service received by

the respondent. The other 9 per cent of mothers who felt they had been

helped made a variety of responses falling into several of the other

categories (the categories can be seen in Table 13 above).

The following are typical examples of responses from the 31 per cent of

mothers who felt that they had been helped and who, in their comments,

referred to the use of the service by first time mothers and/or for young

babies. (However, as can be seen, mothers often made comments which fitted

into more than one category). It is also worth noting that while these

mothers were generally positive about child health services some also had

criticisms to make.

* Most impressed, very useful service especially for new mothers who

don't know what they are doing. Only one complaint, they tend to go by

the book instead of treating each baby as an individual.

* Very necessary service for mothers with their first child. I have

found many mothers feel very 'housebound' and lacking in confidence with

no positive feedback until they visit CAFHS (child health service)

clinics. I feel CAFHS needs to choose their clinic sisters much more

carefully and to publicise their wider range of services more.

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Figure ,l;0: Helpfulness Of Child Heal th Services By City & Total Sample (Only Users Included)

% Of Users 80~--------------------.----------~

70

61.4 60

• 50 45.7·

40

• 30

20

••• o 10 5.1

• .f Very Helpful Helpful Not Helpful

Helpfulness at Child Health Services

•. ~ Melbourne 1::mB Adelaide ~ Perth ~ Total "

- 01 -

* Very helpful for first child. Not as necessary for second child as

mother has some previous experience. Nevertheless, helpful for·

reassurance with specific problems. Generally, Maternal and Child

Health Service was helpful in terms of social contact (particularly

other mothers), as well as for health care.

* The service for me was more useful for my first child - more

experienced next time - and is indispensable for mothers lacking

confidence, suffering depression, etc. The recent cuts are to be

deplored, the sister should be present as much as possible, the service

is essential.

The following quotes are typical of those made by the 31 per cent of

mothers who had been helped by the service, and who referred to the social

value of child health service, what it provides (or does not provide) for

mothers and the community in general.

* An essential service that can provide support and understanding for

the infant and mother •

. * I think that it is an essential service that should be expanded, not

depleted. It is a God send for new mothers, and very supportive to

mothers of additional children. I believe that an after hours service

would be invaluable to some mothers who need assistance; after all, most

problems occur in the evening and there are many mums without family or

neighbour help. NB Although there are many services available (ie

emergency lines), being able to ring someone who is familiar is far more

appealing than a stranger. I believe that assurance for mother is dealt

with too lightly. A small amount of assurance can go a long way.

* I think it is a very important link with the mother and the community.

I think it is a service which should never lose any funding but be given

extra funds and extra workers.

* Excellent support and resource for all mothers and families especially

for the first born and those without extended families. It is also a

great service because it is FREE and accessible to mothers without

transport. It is less threatening than hospital and doctor's clinics.

It is also an advantage to have home-visits. Important fqr mothers to

be able to relate to other women and other mothers.

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The following quotes are typical of those made by the 29 per cent of the

mothers who found these services helpful and mentioned the quality of advice

and staff training and/or a description of the service received by the

respondent.

* I think the Maternal and Child Health Services are wonderful, without

my infant welfare sister I would have had trouble coping with my baby.

Not only are they a great help with the baby, they care greatly for the

mother and her individual problems, giving confidence, which is

important.

* I feel it was a great help in raising my first and continuing growing

family and feel that with the cut backs of late that it must put a great

strain on the unsure new mum, and remove the security of knowing that an

understanding, informative, trained person is a phone call away. I can

now only visit the centre by appointment and when I first came home

couldn't contact the centre for more than a week with several small

problems I had. You don't feel it necessary to go to a doctor or return

to the hospital although they suggest it, so I feel the health service

needs to be looked over again with the view to returning more permanent

staff.

* A positive service. Improved as younger better trained (usually

mothers) women replaced the old guard (often unmarried). I wonder if it

nets (is visited by) the really needy. Impressed that a representative

visited my home.to check on.mother and.child within a week of hospital

discharge.

* An invaluable service, offering sensible advice. The phone service is

also good, especially with a first child, when 'to go to the doctor or

not' can be a problem.

Analysis reported earlier in this paper indicated that one of the groups

associated with non-use of child health services was that where a language

other than English was spoken in the home. As migrants make up a large

proportion of the Australian population it is important to hear the views of

mothers from homes where a language other than English was spoken who had

used child health services. The following comments from these mothers are

typical of those who found the service helpful and very simil~r to those

from mothers in English speaking homes reported above.

- 69 -

* It's a great help for mothers like me. (both parents born in the

Philippines)

* I found it very beneficial because it taught me different aspects of

child care. (Both parents born in Yugoslavia)

* I think t~e.centres are indispensable in meeting the needs of new

mothers. These can range from the need for information and guidance

when small as well as large problems arise, to contact with other

mothers (or fathers) with shared concerns. The centres seem to be

ideally placed to cater for the wide ranging nature of these needs.

(mother born in Italy, father in Australia)

Mothers who were not helped

A small minority of mothers, 5 per cent, who had used child health

services for the child in the study, said that they found the service was

not helpful. There were slight differences between the cities as can be

seen in Figure 18. Although this group of dissatisfied users is small,

information about such mothers and the reasons for their dissatisfaction is

important for service providers if they are to improve service provision.

Analysis indicated that these mothers showed no clear characteristics as a

group. However, not surprisingly, they tended to use the service less than

mothers who found it helpful. More than half of this group, 53 per cent,

had used the service as little as 1 to 5 times, whereas the larger group of

mothers who found the service 'helpful' or 'very helpful' tended to use the

service much more frequently and only 16.2 per cent and 6.3 Per cent

respectively of these groups had used it only 1 to 5 times.

When asked the question 'What do you think about the child health

service?', nearly half, 46 per cent, the group of mothers who felt that they

had not been helped by child health services, referred to the quality of

advice, the quality of staff training and/or a description of the service

received. The following responses are typical and give some indication of

why these mothers felt they were not helped.

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* I thought that the Infant Welfare sisters relied too much on

statistics and not enough on the fact that every child is an individual

and advances at his own pace. Too many graphs are used which only

confuses matters. After having one child, the second child's visits

were completely unnecessary.

* Too pushy. Not all children are textbook cases.

* They do things out of a book written in the eighteenth century.

* They are not up to date with problems (health) of new born children.

They are only familiar with text book problems. I found them terribly

lacking in my area •

* Insistence on continuation of breast feeding was detrimental to the

early development of the baby. Also the particular difficulties of

working mothers were not addressed.

The comments of another 28 per cent of mothers who had not found child

health services helpful referred to personal qualities of the staff, their

age.group, and whether they were mothers themselves. The following are

typical replies from mothers in this category. It is worth noting that the

comments are not entirely negative.

* Good to weigh babies, but the women (health sisters) are usually

spinsters (childless) and .were not at. all knowledgeable with breast

feeding and its problems, .and were very discouraging and did nothing for

one's confidence in this area. They try to run babies to a clock.

* I never used. the service for my second and third child. I found the

sister whom I saw with my first child was too busy telling me, she never

listened to me.

* I think it depends on the individual centre. The principle is good,

but some of the staff may not be as good as others, therefore the

service is then affected. The centre I went to was not very good.

* They are a good idea BUT more often than not they have never had

children themselves and try to force ideas onto mothers. On paper these

ideas sound good but they don't always work in practice.

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* Depends largely on the wisdom and experience of the sister in charge.

With my children 1, 2 and 3, she was excellent. With number 4 the

sister was not at all helpful.

The other 25 per cent of mothers who felt that they had not been helped

by child health services made comments that fell into all the remaining

categories sho~ in Table 13; there were no clear patterns.

It is also important to examine the views of mothers in homes where a

language other than English is spoken, who have not found child health

services helpful, to see if their experience ~s the same as other mothers

who have not found the services helpful or if they have any special reasons

for feeling that they were not helped. The following are typical responses

from these mothers. It is interesting to note that with the exception of

the comment about English speaking these mothers are critical of child

health services for the same sort of things as mothers who speak English at

home.

* The nurse was not very helpful and although my English is quite good

she treated me as if I did not understand anything. I left the place

without being any less worried about my child's health. (Both parents

born in Hungary)

* Waste of time! (Both parents born in Greece)

* Most of the Health Centre sisters I have dealt with have never had

children of their own and when you have a problem child I don't think

they have the practical experience. I also felt that they thought I was

the 'dumb' mother who didn't know anything and they did know it all.

(Mother born in Greece, father born in Yugoslavia)

* I think that it is a waste of time, the things that they told me I

already knew them all. The only thing I thought was good about it was

that they weigh them! (Both parents born in Italy)

* Are fantastic for those mothers that don't know anything about health

and how to stimulate their children. (both parents born in Chile)

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Conclusions

Child health services in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth were used and

appreciated by most mothers in the sample. Many mothers pointed out how

important the service was to first-time mothers, others pointed out how

essential the service is to mothers, children and the community as a whole.

Many mothers me9tioned the quality of the advice and the training of the

staff. Some mothers found that visiting the child health centre and

meeting other mothers prevented feelings of isolation.

Only a small group of mothers· (5 per cent'- who had used child health

services found they were not helpful. Many of these mothers referred to the

quality of the staff and their training. They objected to the rigidity and

narrowness of some advice and attitudes. Many of the mothers who felt they

were not helped alsol referred to personal qualities of the staff: that they

had no children of their own and lacked personal experience of motherhood~

that they had their own ideas about what was right and did not respond to

the particular circumstances of mother and child, and that they were too

'bossy'. A theme which came through, particularly among mothers who were

not helped, but also to some extent with mothers who were helped, was the

fact that much depended on the particular sister and centre, and that the

service could vary a great deal.

Over the period of time that Australian child health services have been

operating there have been reviews and reorganisation of the various services

at different times, but essentially they have remained educative and

supportive services available to all mothers with infants and/or young

children, rather than being intrusive and supervisory. Child health

services are available to those who want to use them and attempts are made

to reach all mothers; however, mothers can choose to use what is provided or

to stay away, the choice is theirs to make. It was quite clear from the

comments of some mothers that they appreciated the element of choice because

they did not have to attend if they felt confident with later born children

or did not like the sister at their centre.

It is interesting to compare this element of choice in Australian child

health services with the British system of health visitors where the element

of choice is less available. Mayall and Foster (1989) found that health

visitors in Britain, who can call on mothers in their homes unannounced,

perceived themselves and were perceived by parents as having the 'dual role

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of "policer" and "friendly advisor"'. Foster contrasted the English system

with the French, which is closer to that operating in Australia; the role of

the French 'puericultrice' is to promote the health of pre-school children

in a variety of settings, but in particular in the child health clinic

(Foster, 1988-89). Like the Australian child health nurse, the French

puericultrice visits homes only through arranged visits, but the main

service offered~is centred on the clinic. Foster (1989) argues that these

basic differences in operation lead to different ideas about parents and

their role, with the British health visitor having a more negative view of

parents than their French counterparts who view parents as responsible

adults who can make decisions for themselves about the care of their

children. Foster points o~t the strain placed on the English health

visitor, who tends to visit certain houses more often than others in their

effort to watch over their charges.

They (health visitors) have a caseload and are expected to 'keep an eye'

on all households in that caseload. They are accountable to society for

the wellbeing of these children. For example, they have been blamed by

official reports on cases of child abuse and in the press for failing to

oversee a family if a case of undetected child abuse occurred (Foster,

·1989, 326).

In the Australian system, like the French system, parents retain the

major responsibility for children. No evidence was found in the comments

made that Australian mothers who used child health services see nurses as

having a 'policing' role with families and children; mothers·~·who did not

like child health services could choose not to attend without" fear that

their decision could be over-ridden. Although this choice means that some

mothers do not attend centres, it appears that most mothers do so and the

.majority find them helpful.

Nevertheless, providers of child health services should, not rest on

their laurels. The group of non-users tended to come from particular

sections of society: those on lower incomes, those where a language other

than English was spoken in the home, those where the child was later born

and a slight tendency to non-use by mothers working long hours. However, it

must be remembered that some of the mothers who did not use the services for

the particular child in the study may have used them for other children.

The non-use by mothers of later-born children is not so worrying as the non

use by mothers in the other categories. On the other .hand, the children in

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this study were born in 1982, '83 and '84 and there have been some changes

in service provision since then. For example, hours have been extended on

some nights at some centres, health checks are carried out in some child

care centres and so on. At the same time some of the major trends in

society have intensified: there are now more mothers in the workforce,

particularly mothers of infants and pre-school children, poverty is

increasing due ;0 unemployment, and there has been continuing immigration

including people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

In the past, child health services. have been innovative and inventive in

servicing the needs of mothers and. infants in bard to reach circumstances;

for example, using the 'Tea and sugar train' in Western Australia to reach

mothers in far off regions, providing travelling caravans and correspondence

sections. Some modern day mothers in city locations, rather than the

country, may need services which are just as inventive and which make use of

locations other than clinics. Consultation with ethnic community groups,

and low income support groups, may ~dentify new approaches to meeting their

needs. Provision of more flexible opening hours for centres so that working

mothers can visit at convenient hours may be necessary to meet the

increasing needs of busy working mothers.

Child health service providers should also take note of the criticisms

of some of the users. Some nurses appear to be too rigid and to operate 'by

the book'. To what extent do these nurses understand the problems of

families in modern society where increasingly mothers of very young children

are entering the work force and leaving' their children in the care of others,

where many families come from very different cultures with different values

and ways of doing things, and where many speak a language other than English

at home? Some child health nurses may be more suited to some people and

some areas than others. Refresher courses which keep nurses up to date not

only on health matters but also on what is happening in families and society

are essential. Australian society has changed, and Australian families have

changed. Trying to balance work and family demands is a problem for many

parents, trying to adapt to a new and often strange society is a problem for

others, while low income places pressures on parents and is linked with low

self esteem. Child health services and individual nurses must be sensitive

to these difficulties.

Child health services are used by most mothers and most believe it is an

important and worthwhile support. Nevertheless, the needs of the mothers

- 75 -

who felt that they had not been helped must not be forgotten as their views

indicate some areas which need improvement. Perhaps the final comment

should come from a mother whose experience was close to ideal.

The sisters gave help, advice, support, lent items (eg breast. pump) and

there was always an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on.

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5. THE EFFECTS OF NON-MATERNAL CARE IN THE FIRST TWELVE MONTHS OF LIFE ON

CHILDREN IN THE FIRST YEAR OF SCHOOL

There has been considerable debate for many years about the effects of non

maternal care on children in the pre-school years. Current concern in

Australia and many other Western countries focuses on the effects of long

hours of non-maternal care on infants, particularly those under 12 months of

age. This concern is partly related to the increasing number of mothers who

are returning to work while their children are very young, partly to

difficulty in finding satisfactory child-care, particularly for very young

children, but also to publicity given to rese~rch by Belsky et al (1988), in

the United States, which indicates a greater degree of insecure attachment

in infants who had been in long hours of non-maternal care.

This study was designed to examine some of the long-term impacts of

varying child care contexts on Australian children and ,their developing

competence. Although' most of this ~nalysiB will be based on data in Stage 2

of the study, the larger sample at stage 1 gives us an opportunity to look

at some effects on children who experienced long day care away from their

mothers in the first 'twelve months of life.

Much of the fear about the possible negative effects of non-maternal

care on pre-school children stems from interpretations of John Bowlby's

research in the 1950s which emphasised the importance of mother-infant

bonding ahd attachment, and the detrimental effects of separation from

mother. Bowlby's work was actually concerned with the effects of maternal

deprivation on infants and young children brought up in hospitals and

institutions and who had suffered severe deprivation; however findings have

been generalised to' children living with their own mothers and fathers.

Bowlby claimed that young children could suffer psychological damage if

separated from mother or mother substitute in the first five years of life;

he also claimed that this is one of the principal causes of delinquency.

However, this claim has not been borne out by research in the thirty or

forty years since; separation from mother has not been found to have long

term effects on children in families, rather delinquency and behaviour

problems have been linked with ongoing conflict in the family (Rutter; 1976;

Rutter, 1981, 1984, 1989; Tizard, 1986).

Although Bowlby claimed it was not harmful for mothers to_leave their

babies and young children occasionally with their own mother or a known

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dependable adult, he also stated that' ••. to start nursery school much

before. the third birthday is for most children an undesirably stressful

experience' (Bowlby, 1973, 54). It became generally accepted that children

were at risk if mothers went out to work before they were 3 or even 5, and

that work should be part time only. Oakley (1981, 217) argues that: 'The

reason why Bowlbyism caught on was that his message fitted the spirit of the

times: the 1950s. were a reactionary time for women ••• '.

Bowlby also argued that there is a tendency for children to. attach to

one figure and that attachment to mother is qualitatively different from

other attachments. However this argument has ~lso been challenged by

research which indicated that some children are more attached to father,

although he may not be the primary caregiver, and some are attached to

several people; attachment is not dependent on the amount of time spent with

the child but rather the quality of the relationship (Rutter, 1981; Tizard,

1986). Studies have also indicated that father's role was both more

important and more direct than prev~ously realised (Lamb, 1976, 1977;

Clarke-Stewart, 1980; Pederson, 1980; Chibucos and Kail, 1981; Parke, 1981) •

. A survey of non-industrialised countries in the late 1970sfound that

child rearing is usually shared with other members of the extended family

and it is rare for mothers to be exclusively responsible for children

(Weisner and Gallimond, 1977, cited in McCartney and Galanopoulos, 1988).

For example, the care of young Maori children is seen as the pleasure and

the responsibility of the family group. In Pacific Island cultures there is

no word for mother; mothers and aunts share the same name and

responsibilities (Meade, 1988). In these societies mother care is not seen

as something unique, a fact that serves as a warning against assuming too

readily that one form of child care is necessarily superior to other forms.

During the 1960s Western researchers were concerned with the quality of

mother-child attachment and whether child care in centres was bad for

children. They found however that children in child care were just as

attached to mother as children cared for only by mother. Although there was

no difference in intellectual development, children in child-care centres

were found to be a little more 'aggressive' and 'independent' (McCartney and

Galanapoulos, 1988). Nevertheless, this research was criticised because the

children studied were cared for in high quality centres, often on university

campuses, whereas many children are cared for in centres with lower

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standards. This led Jay Belsky, who, in a review of the literature had come

to the conclusion that children were not harmed by child care (Belsky and

Steinberg 1978), to look once more at the effects of non-maternal care.

Belsky recently reversed his original stance and in an extensive review of

the research (1989) argues that there is substantial evidence of a link

between early placement in day care and later attachment and social

development proglems in children (Tizard 1986; Karen 1990).

While Bowlby argued that attachment to mother was essentially different

from attachment to any other person, Belsky, in line with more recent

research on the importance of the father, considered attachment to father an

important factor also, and in this sense is not as rigid in his definition

of attachment as were the earlier attachment theorists. Belsky's research

(Belsky and Rovine, 1988), found higher rates of insecure attachment in

babies (under 12 months) who had been in long hours of non-maternal care or

non-parental care. Belsky also reports several other studies with similar

findings. Belsky's research and other research on infant attachment rests

largely on the credibility of the. 'Strange Situation Technique' which was

developed by Mary Ainsworth to observe attachment behavior in mothers and

infants (Tizard 1986; Karen 1990).

Ainsworth believed that mothers' sensitivity to the signal of their

infants was a key factor in attachment, and that attachment in infancy was a

good predictor of later emotional and social behavior (Rutter, 1981; Tizard,

1986; Karen, 1990). The Strange Situation observation technique, a series

of eight episodes of combinations of mother, baby and stranger in a room,

has been criticised on several grounds, including validity. It is an

artificial situation in which mother and child are observed, and does not

take into account many other factors influencing the child's behaviour,

including child temperament and family factors. Babies do differ in their

ways and experience. Babies who. have been in child care may appear detached

not because they are insecure but because they are more independent, more

accustomed to the care and presence of strangers and used to coming and

going (Scarr and Dunn, 1987; McCartney and Galanopoulos, 1988).

Clarke-stewart (1988) questions the assumption that the Strange ,,'

Situation technique when used with children accustomed to non-maternal care

is psychologically equivalent to its use with home reared children. She

points out that the Strange Situation technique' ••• is premised on cr~ating

a situation in which the infant feels moderately stressed and therefore

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displays proximity seeking behavior to the object of his or her attachment' .

The strange Situation, therefore, may not be as stressful for infants

accustomed to non-maternal care as for home 'reared infants, as familiarity

may affect their responses. Clarke-Stewart (1988) also points out that

there are cultural variations in response to the strange Situation

technique, with some cultures having a high proportion of infants classified

as· insecurely a~tached; the artificially created situation is obviously not

stressful to infants from all cultures.

Research has also indicated that babies with several attachments are

less distressed if mother works outside the home than those with only one

attachment (Scarr and Dunn, 1987). Studies have shown that babies in child

care protest just as much at separation from mother as those at home with

mother; both groups showed a preference for mothers rather than care-givers.

No studies of day-care children have shown them to be more emotionally or

socially maladjusted (Tizard, 1986), although Belsky is doubtful about this

claim (Belsky, 1988).

The most valuable aspect of Belsky's recent review of the effects of

infant day care is the discussion of the broader issues involved in non

maternal care of children with reference to previous research. He looks

further than mere attachment theory and quality-of-care arguments, and

discusses the broader ecological circumstances of the family. Although

Belsky is concerned about increased rates of insecure attachment in children

in long hours of care in the first 12 months, he also points out that there

were some children in long hours of care who did not show insecure

attachment, and that it is therefore important to look for factors in the

family environment or in children themselves which are protective (Belsky

and Rovine, 1988; Belsky, 1988).

Nevertheless, Belsky's claim that insecure attachment at the end of the

first year is a risk factor which is associated with later aggression and

noncompliance is questionable (Fein and Fox 1988; Clarke-Stewart, 1988).

Aggression and non-compliance may also be interpreted as assertiveness and

independence. As Clarke-Stewart (1988) argues 'day care children may be

more "bratty" than home care children; they may want their own way and do

not have the skills to get it. This does not mean they are maladjusted.

More clinically sensitive measures of maladjustment are needed to prove that ,

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Fein and Fox (1988, 230) point out that some attachment theorists are

rethinking the meaning of attachment in the first year of life and' ••• now

argue for naturally occurring transformations in the quality of attachment

during the second and third years of life. Secure and insecure attachment

measured at the end of the first year is not viewed as a critical factor in

subsequent personality formation, but rather as one component in a

probabilistic model, along with continuity and stability of home ~

environment, life stress events, and the like'.

Family factors affecting-children

King and MacKinnon (1988), who reviewed research over the 1980s on the

relationship between day care and child development, assert that the

important question in regard to non-maternal care of children is how

qualities of the home interact with qualities of the day care environment to

affect child outcomes. Both Bronfenbrenner (1986) and Belsky (1988) suggest

that researchers should take an ecological approach, which includes family

factors, to the effects of non-maternal care on child development.

Although research taking into account both family and day care factors

has so far been limited methodologically, both in scope and sample size, a

number of family factors have been suggested as mediating the effects of day

care on infants and also influencing the choice of non-maternal care

(Hoffman, 1983; Belsky, 1988; Clarke-Stewart, 1988; King and MacKinnon,

1988; McCartney and Galanopoulos, 1988; Richters and Zahn-Waxler, 1988).

Richters and Zahn~Waxler' (1988)' suggest that family factors may not merely

mediate or buffer the effects of non-maternal care, but may account for

child outcomes independently. Family characteristics such as SES, and

family structure (single or two-parent) are likely to have both direct and

indirect effects on child outcomes, and also to influence the choice of non-

parental care (Belsky, 1988; Schachere, 1990; King and Mackinnon, 1988). We

know from other research that family conflict has a negative effect on

children's competence (Ochiltree and Amato 1984; Amato 1987; Ochiltree

1990).

Children from birth are part of a family system which influences the

developing child as a whole, and also through dyadic relationships with

individual members of the family (Minuchin, 1977). 'Both parents influence

their children's development and which parent is more importa~t varies with

the child's age, sex, temperament and environmental circumstances.

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Furthermore, it is not always meaningful to regard the influence of each

parent as separate and independent. The mental health of one parent may

influence that of the other and may also influence the marital relationship.

The family consists of individuals and pairs of individuals, but it is also

a social group of its own and needs to be considered as such' (Rutter,

1981). Nevertheless, there are indications that child-specific

relationships may be more important than overall family relationships ~

(Rutter, 1989)

Characteristics of the mother, such as her emotional state (King and

MacKinnon, 1988; Schachere, 1990; Lancaster, ~rior and Adler,. 1986),

quantity and quality of the mother-child relationship (Hoffman, 1983;

Clarke-Stewart, 1988; Mccartney and Galanopoulos, 1988; Schachere, 1990),

the father-child relationship (Hoffman, 1983; Belsky, 1988; Schachere,

1990), parenting skills (King and MacKinnon, 1988; Belsky, 1988; Richters

and Zahn-Waxler, 1988), family processes such as conflict and stress

(Rutter, 1976, 1981; Ochiltree and Amato 1984; Amato 1987; Belsky, 1988;

Fine and Fox, 1988; Ochiltree 1990), the marital relationship (Belsky, 1988;

Richters and Zahn-Waxler, 1988; Schachere, 1990), and job stress (Belsky,

1988; Clarke-Stewart, 1988) may affect child outcomes. with older children

the. negative effects of family conflict on adjustment and self ·esteem have

been well documented (Nye, 1957; Raschke and Raschke, 1979; Ellison, 1983;

Ochiltree and Amato, 1984).

Schachere (1990) suggests that the marital relationship affects how both

husband and wife function as parents and that a good relationship may act as

a parent support system. Clarke-Stewart (1988) paints out that employment

in the work force is hard on mothers and that this stress may affect their

relationships within the family, including those with their children.

Belsky (1988) cites research by Pederson and colleagues (1983) which found

that employed mothers of infants attempt to compensate for being absent by

spending more time with them and may displace father's time. He infers from

findings in studies which found that mothers of anxious-resistant infants

stimulated them and/or were more affectionate than mothers of secure

infants, that this behavior may inadvertently lead boys to have less secure

relationships with their fathers. However, there is no direct evidence for

his claim (Clarke-Stewart, 1988).

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Child Characteristics

There is both theoretical and empirical evidence that children are active

participants in the socialisation process. The theories of the cognitive

psychologists, Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky and others, are based on the

premise that children have a built in tendency to explore and master the

environment, an~ to learn the unstated rules of .the world about them

(Ginsberg and Opper, 1979; Wine, 1981; Skolnick, 1981). Research over the

last couple of decades has indicated that babies, although limited in their

physical development, actively' attempt··to· master their environments very

early in life (Rheingold, 1971; Schaffer and Crook, 1978; Bell, 1979). The

environment in this sense is both physical and human, with the infant

attempting to predict and control both (Donaldson, 1978). Research has also

indicated that alert, responsive babies get more attention from mothers than

less responsive babies, that difficult new babies are more easily stressed

than others, and that mothers talk less to irritable babies (Tizard, 1986).

Children take an active role in relationships not just within the family but

in all settings. For example Zinsser, (1988) found family daycare minders

liked to care for children who were "good" and not demanding •

. While there is some evidence that boys are more affected by non-maternal

care than girls (Hoffman, 1983; Belsky, 1988; Schachere, 1990), Clarke

Stewart (1988) points out that the evidence is not strong. Child

temperament is also likely to affect child outcomes (Tizard, 1986; Clarke

Stewart, 1988; Richters and Zahn-Waxler, 1988). For example, Belsky (1988)

found that insecurely attached infants' of working mothers had more difficult

temperaments. Clarke-Stewart (1988) suggests that mothers' perceptions of

infant temperament are more important than objective tests. Siblings,

particularly older siblings, may also have an influence on children's

development and response to non-maternal care (Tizard, 1986).

The long term effects of early experience

There is a strong belief among parents and the public in general, arising

from the influence of Freud, Bowlby and others, that events which occur in

infancy and early childhood have a significant influence on later happiness

as an adult (Kagan, 1984). This belief makes mothers in particular, and

parents in general, disturbed when they are informed that infants in non

maternal care in the first twelve months of life are at risk of insecure

attachment and possibly later psychological problems. However, as Rutter

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(1989), in a comprehensive examination of the issues and related research

argues, this belief has been challenged by findings from research over the

last three decades. 'It became clear that people changed a good deal over

the course of development and that the outcome following early adversities

was quite diverse, with long-term effects heavily dependent on the nature of

subsequent life experiences (Clarke and Clarke, 1976). Even markedly

adverse experiences in infancy carry few risks for later development if the

subsequent rearing environment is a good one (Rutter, 1981)'.

Fien and Fox (1988, 233) in the introduction to the Early childhood

research quarterly. Special issue: infant da~care, sum up the issues: '

it seems clear that current studies, even those set within attachment

theory, have too many methodological problems and constraints to serve as

the basis for alarm or negative conclusions about the consequences of early

non-parental care. In the near future, the aim of systematic research will

be to devise measures of important attributes of parents, children,

caregivers, and settings; to devis~ procedures for identifying research

populations; and to devise strategies for building needed control conditions

into our group comparisons' •

. In addition to the methodological problems mentioned above, most

research on non-maternal (and non-parental) care and its effects has been

carried out in the United States, a country which is different in many ways

from Australia. In the light of changing patterns of child rearing, renewed

interest in the effects of child-care on children, and particularly on

infants, Australian research is necessary to provide a basis::.~for informed

policy and planning, and to assist mothers making decisions about the care

of pre-school children.

The Australian Early Child care Contexts study

A major concern of the Australian Early Child care Contexts study is the

relationship between a broad range of family factors, child characteristics,

and different patterns of caring for children, including non-maternal care,

in the years between birth and starting school (at approximately 5 years of

age), and child competence in the first year of school. This section of the

report examines some of the effects of non-maternal care in the first twelve

months of life on child outcomes, using data from Stage 1 of the. study.

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Hoffman (1983) criticised research examining the effects of maternal

employment on young children for small and biased samples, and indicated the

need for longitudinal or retrospective studies with less biased samples. In

order to obtain a representative sample of mothers of young children in the

present study, the sample was selected from children in their first year of

school; a retrospective approach was thus taken to care of children in the

pre-school years. Besides obtaining a random sample, this method had the

advantage of providing urgently needed information much faster than by

beginning with a birth cohort of children. Nevertheless, it is planned to

make thi~ a longitudin~l study.and to return to the children in the stage 2

sample at a later date, (perhaps when_the_child~en are 9 or 10 years of age).

As discussed in the introduction this study is theoretically based on an

understanding of the development of competence in children. The concept of

competence stresses the positive aspects of development rather than only

deficits, and encompasses a wide range of human functioning both social

emotional and cognitive and educatiQnal (Smith, 1969; Connolly and Bruner,

1974; Edgar, 1980; Wine, 1981; Amato, 1987; Ochiltree, 1990).

Family factors and child characteristics which are included in the

design of the study can be seen in Table 1 (see introduction). Many were

suggested in the earlier discussion of research in this area, but others,

such as mother and child health and the life events scale, are included as

possible stressors in the family system. Mother's perception of the quality

of the neighbourhood and the services provided are also included, as they

may have an impact on child outcomes through effects on the family (Rutter,

1981); but much of this analysis must wait until Stage 2 and is not

available in this stage 1 report.

Table 2 (see introduction) shows the various ch~ld care contexts

included in the design and indicates what is included at Stage 1. At Stage

2 of the study analysis need not be limited to simple comparisons of one

form of care with another; comparisons can be made of multiple forms of care

with simple contexts of care, continuity of care with discontinuity, and

mother's satisfaction with the care situation can be taken into account

also. Table 3 (see Introduction) shows the measures of child outcomes

(competence) used in the study; included are indicators of the social

emotional and the cognitive-educational status of children. However, as

indicated earlier, analysis in this report is limited to data_collected in

Stage 1 of the study.

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The effects on children of non-maternal care.

In the light of current concern with the effects of early non-maternal care

on infants, analysis in this section of the report focuses on children who

'were in non-maternal care in the first year of life (and who were in the

first year of school at the time of data collection). Any analysis from

this stage of the study can only be preliminary because of the limited

nature of the data and the lack of full information on the family.

In particular this analysis will examine the Stage 1 data·, for any

evidence which would support Belsky's argumen~, based on attachment theory,

that long hours of non-maternal care of children in the first year of life

is a risk factor in the later development of psychological problems. This

analysis will therefore examine the relationship between the hours children

were in non-maternal care in the first year of life and socio-emotional or

behaviour difficulties in their first year of school which are likely to be

in combination indications of psych~iogical problems. The current study

does not use the usual 'Strange Situation' technique, but includes other

measures which bear on the question of children's adjustment.

The. stage 1 Measure of Social Emotional Difficulty

In order to obtain some information on the general competence of children

whose mothers took part in Stage 1 of the study a checklist was included in

the questionnaire. This checklist, which was adapted from the ACER Parent

Checklist (with permission from ACER), consists of a number of skills and

behaviours which children are expected to have developed by the time they go

to school in Australia. The checklist was originally designed to be filled

in by parents (usually mother) and given to the teacher when their child

commenced school so that the teacher would have some idea of the child's

skill level or general competence. Mothers' perceptions of children's

behavior and development is the most viable way of obtaining information in

a questionnaire, but mothers also have the most opportunity to observe their

children over a long period of time. Objective observations by others are

usually for short time periods only and therefore are less accurate (Carey,

1982).

The ACER checklist was somewhat out of date and sexist. The wording was

changed to make it non-sexist, it was up-dated and new items about language

and emotional development were added. The checklist was trial led in three

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pilots of the questionnaire before the main study commenced. It was

expected that the scale would be positively skewed (as it proved to be)

because the items are ones which most children should have achieved before

commencing school. However, the more important issue was to find which

children had not achieved this desired level of competence, as perceived by

their mothers.

The full checklist as set out in the questionnaire was in a simple 'tick

the box if the item applies to your child' format. Some ite~s were reversed

to prevent set expectations. The checklist included items such as 'Knows

full name', 'Talks -in· sentences', 'Dresses'him·self/herself most of the

time', 'can use scissors' and other items which are more concerned with

social and emotional behaviour such as 'Seems to worry a great deal', 'Likes

to play with other children', and so on.

The items from this scale which discriminated (i.e. frequency was less

than 90 per cent), 14 items in all,. were selected for further analysis.

These 14 items were subjected to principal components factor analysis from

which one main factor emerged (Alpha Coefficient .68); it includes 7 items

relating to socio-emotional behaviour patterns in children. This 'Social

Emotional Difficulty' factor consisted of the following·items 'Seems to

worry a great deal', 'Cries very easily when upset', 'Often has temper

tantrums when upset or corrected',' 'Is very restless or active, never stays

still for a moment', 'Inattentive, doesn't notice what is happening', 'Is

aggressive with other children', and 'Appears miserable, unhappy, tearful or

distressed'. Children could score" from "0 to 7 on this scale. Most items on

this scale are generally regarded as undesirable in school age children in

western society if frequent and in combination and are seen as an indication

of some psycho-social difficulties. But ACER in the handbook for the

checklist points out that there can also be cultural variation in results

(Rowe 1979).

Analysis

This Social-Emotional Difficulty scale (derived from the ACER checklist) is

the primary focus in this assessment of the argument that long hours of non

maternal care in the. first twelve months of life is a risk factor in the

development of later problems of aggression, non-compliance, or

psychological problems. Although stage 1 of the study was not explicitly

designed to appraise Belsky's findings, the study's large sample base

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permits, at the very least, a preliminary examination of the longer term

effects of non-maternal care in the context of a broader non-'Strange

Situation' assessment.

The multivariate OLS approach undertaken here involved regressing the

Social-Emotional Difficulty scale on a variety of factors available in Stage

1 of the study and thought to be plausibly associated with the child's ~

socio-emotional and behavioural well-being, as indicated in the earlier

discussion.

These measures included indicators of:

- the child's child care arrangements at the early infancy stage (i.e.

whether the child had been placed in informal or formal care and the

average number of hours per week the child was cared for by a non-parent

in the first twelve months);

- the characteristics of the child (i.e. its gender, its sibling order and

whether it had a disability);

-the child's family situation (i.e. whether they have two parents, average

hours mother was in paid employment in the child's first year of life, and

how satisfied the child's mother was with life);

- three important measures of the social background of the child (i.e. the

degree of parental ~thnicity, parental education and fami~y income).

What is of interest in appraising the Belsky approach is the extent to

which the child care arrangements are seen to have a significant and

independent effect on the child's subsequent proneness to Social-Emotional

Difficulties - after controlling for the presumed influence (whether

realised directly or indirectly) of the various social background, family

situation and child characteristic factors. Our sample size and background

measures enable us to take a more 'ecological' approach than many other

studies have been able to attempt.

It should be noted that the initial correlations between the Social-

emotional Difficulty. scale and the three child care arrangement variables do

not provide bivariate support for the broad 'attachment' ·hypothesis. The

negligible relationships between informal (r= -.03) and formal (r= .02)

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child care and Social-Emotional Difficulty respectively, and that between

duration of non-maternal child-care and Social-Emotional Difficulty (r= .01)

are of such low magnitude, and/or in the opposite direction to Belsky's

hypothesis, that one might reasonably suppose further, more stringent,

multivariate analysis was unwarranted.

Nevertheles~, the possibility that the effect of child-care arrangement

on subsequent Social-Emotional Difficulty has been masked (or suppressed) by

the confounding influence of the social background, family situation and

child characteristic variables, some of which do exhibit non-negligible

zero-order relationships with the Soc~al-Emotronal Difficulty measure,

suggests that a further stage of multivariate assessment is required.

As Table 14 demons~rates, however, controlling for the various social

background, family situational and child-specific factors does not reveal

evidence of any suppressor effect(s) in action; rather, child care

arrangements are seen, again, to have no statistically significant influence

on level of Social-Emotional Difficulty - and given an N of over 8000, such

significance is not difficult to achieve.


Instead, the most important, albeit weak, direct ('positive') influence

on the child's level.of Social-Emotional Difficulty is seen to be his/her

parents' degree of ethnicity; for example, net of other factors, children of

parents born in non-English speaking 'countries and speaking a language other

than English in the home are likely, on average, to score half a point

higher on the Social-Emotional Difficulty scale than children coming from

Australian born families and may be due to cultural differences or to the

difficulties of dealing with cultural differences. On the other hand,

social background factors such as family income and education exhibit

'negative' direct influences on the Social-Emotional Difficulty scale - that

is, children from the better educated and higher income families show lower

Social-Emotional Difficulty scores than do their less privileged peers.

Of the family situation factors, by far the most important (and in fact

the most important of the independent influences discussed here - importance

being gauged by the relative magnitudes of the unstandardised regression

coefficient x mean products) is the life satisfaction of the ~hild's mother.

Other things being equal, in families with 'satisfied' mothers, children are

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TABLE 14 • OLS REGRESSION OF SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTY

ON FAMILY SOCIAL BACKGROUND AND SITUATION, CHILD CHARACTERISTIC AND CHILD CARE ARRANGEMENT VARIABLE •

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VARIABLE b B

• SOCIAL BACKGROUND

ETHNICITY .47 .20 EDUCATION

DEGREE -.21 -.05 • < 11 YEARS .27 .08 FAMILY INCOME

($100) -.04 -.09

FAMILY SITUATION • TWO PARENTS NS NS NO. HOURS WORKED NS NS SATISFACTION WITH LIFE -.71 -.13

CHILD'S CHARACTERISTICS • MALE .13 ·.04 ELDEST .23 .07 DISABILITY .32 .05

CHILD CARE ARRANGEMENTS • INFORMAL NS NS FORMAL NS -NS HOURS CARED FOR BY OTHERS NS NS

INTERCEPT 2.14

ADJR .10 P<.OOOO •

EXCEPT WHERE NOTED, ALL VARIABLES SIGNIFICANT AT P<.OOO •

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seen to have almost one (out of seven) fewer symptoms of Social-Emotional

Difficulty than the children of mothers who are 'not satisfied' with their

life. However, this relationship is probably because mother's reports of

child behaviour tend to reflect some aspects of the mother as well as the

child, although they are the most viable method of obtaining information

about children, as discussed earlier (Lancaster 1986).

In addition, being a boy, an eldest sibling and/or a disabled child are

attributes of children exhibiting very slightly, but significantly, greater

levels of Social-Emotional Difficulty, once other factors have been taken

into account.

It should be emphasised, however, that none of the above factors

constitutes, on the basis of the data examined here, a mono-causal

explanation of childhood social-emotional problems; nor together do they

'explain' a compelling proportion of the variation in levels of Social

Emotional Difficulty. What these data and their measures do provide even in

the preliminary manner presented here, are reasons to suspect that

attachment theory may well be downplaying the role social background, family

situational and child-specific factors play in the child's socio-emotional

and-behavioural development, especially when assessed in the wider, more

realistic context of the survey setting.

Discussion

The analysis reported here is not conclusive. However, it does suggest that

long hours of non-maternal care in the first years of life and mothers

working are not the primary cause of socio-emotional difficulties on school

entry. Rather, this analysis suggests that socio-emotional difficulties as

measured by the Social-Emotional Difficulty scale, are related to broader

family background factors and characteristics of mother and child. However,

it is important to note that this preliminary ~inding is not entirely at

odds with those reported by 8elsky when he asserts:'Nor has it been my

goal to argue that nonmaternal care per se poses risks to the child. It is

clear that many factors and processes are confounded, that not all children

realize the risks, and that some account of variation in development of

infants with extensive nonmaternal care is called for. All too often,

however, those accounts that have been offered fall short from an empirical

standpoint' (Belsky; 1988, 265).

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As pOinted out in the introduction, there are many changes in Australian

society which are affecting the way in which children are reared in early

childhood. The increasing number of mothers returning to the labour force

is only one of these changes; however, it is the one which is the focus of

much concern and controversy. More young children would suffer the effects

of poverty if their mothers did not work, and there is much research to

demonstrate tha~ poverty has a negative and limiting effect on child

development.

The Stage 2 data from interviews of 728 mothers (selected from Stage 1

on the basis of the differing forms of caring for children) will provide the

opportunity to include more sensitive measures of family functioning, as

well as maternal and child characteristics, and to examine child outcomes

for both direct and indirect effects. There is also a more comprehensive

range of measures of child outcomes included in Stage 2: Clay's concepts of

print (reading), Larson's copying test (a Piagetian non-language based

test), the ACER Teacher Checklist (which includes teacher's perceptions of

the child's memory and attention, language skills, and most importantly for

purposes of continuing an examination of the issues presented in this

chapter, social development and emotional development), in addition to the

ACER Parent checklist filled· in by mothers at Stage 1. Information on the

child's personality as an infant and at the present time is also available

as well as mother's perception of how the child is adjusting to the school

situation. stage 2 also includes open ended material which is available in

both coded form or as quotes. This open ended material provides the

opportunity for case studies to both illustrate and explore the interaction

of the various factors which may affect child development in greater depth.

The analysis presented here provides no support for the theory that long

hours in non-maternal care in the first year of life is a risk factor which

is associated with later psychological problems. While the arguments about

the effects of non-maternal care continue, mothers who have no choice but to

work continue to have difficulty in finding child care places for their

children; the majority, whether through choice or not, must rely on informal

care, particularly for infants. Information from Stage 2 of this study will

provide further detailed analysis of the effects of different contexts of

care using a range of outcome measures and, much needed information for

informed policy and decision making in Australia.

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