第11期外刊班(第三、四天)讲义.pdf

点点教育第11 期英美外刊超精读班讲义 Working Mothers Warning Controversy over working mothers will be fuelled by research suggesting that young children looked after by other people may be more prone to bad behaviour. Children who spend long days away from their mother, particularly in the first year of life, are more likely to develop problem behaviour, such as hitting and disobeying, according to the findings. But the study also suggests that the higher the quality of day care, the fewer the problems. The research will be discussed at an international three-day conference in London next week, called Parent Child 2000, organised by groups including the National Family and Parenting Institute. A psychology professor, Jay Belsky, of Birkbeck College, London, who will present the findings, said while it would be wrong to overstate the extent of problem behaviour among day care children, it would be equally wrong to deny the modest risk. It would be a mistake to conclude that a lot of time in child care, especially started early in life, is creating psychopaths. The research concerned 1,300 children in the US, and, in a separate study led by Professor Belsky, 125 first-born boys. Family environment was found to be the most important influence on a childs development. But the duration and quality of child care emerged as an indicator of problem behaviour, social skills and mother-child interaction. Prof Belsky said that Britain was coming in line with the US, where almost one in two mothers of children under 12 months went out to work. • Single mothers are 70% more likely to die early than married mothers and are more prone to death by suicide, violent abuse or alcohol, says