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What children's cortisol levels tell us about quality in child care centres

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Author: 
Sims, Margaret; Guilfoyle, Andrew & Parry, Trevor
Format: 
Article
Publication Date: 
1 Jan 2005
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Abstract:

The Australian child care profession has watched with some concern results of research coming out of North America indicating that child care is not good for children. This research identifies undesirable outcomes in children's development and behaviour as a result of child care attendance. How does this research apply to Australian children in Australian child care centres? Australian research is limited and this paper reports on results to date of an Australian study of children's biological stress levels (measured using salivary cortisol) and their relationship with quality child care service delivery. Results demonstrate clearly that children attending high quality child care have lower stress levels across the day than children attending satisfactory or unsatisfactory programmes. Poor quality child care is not good for children.

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