Childcare Relationships and Bickering Parents Affect Kids' Stress Hormones

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

It seems self-evident that kids with poor childcare relationships or parents who frequently fight are more stressed than other kids. But now two new studies have established this common sense theory from a biological standpoint, by monitoring the levels of cortisol (the human stress hormone) in preschoolers and 6-year-olds. As parents across the country struggle to afford high quality childcare and to maintain a stable home environment, these studies are unfortunately quite applicable to these trying economic times.

In most people, cortisol levels decrease throughout the day. But for many children in full-time daycare, the stress hormone increases as the day progresses. Researchers found that class size clearly affected children’s moods, with preschoolers in classes of 10 or fewer children producing less cortisol than those in classrooms with closer to 20 other kids.

Children with poor relationships with their daycare providers became more stressed after one-on-one interactions with the teacher, while clingier kids had higher overall cortisol increases throughout the day.

Similarly, a study of 6-year-olds with bickering parents found that those who were very involved in and distressed about the fights produced more cortisol than other 6-year-olds. Since high levels of cortisol have been linked to health and psychological problems, this finding offers a biological understanding of why kids who get very upset by their parents’ arguments are more likely to have psychological problems later. (Whether higher levels of cortisol are a cause or an effect of psychological disorders is not clear.)

The study’s authors hope that understanding the biological basis of stress in young children will change the way kids in these common problematic situations are treated. For instance, monitoring kids’ levels of cortisol could help indicate whether a given intervention is working to relieve stress or not.

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Nannies and Mommies: What's Real and What's Just Hollywood?

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:57:00 GMT

The Nanny Diaries opened at the end of last week. While this might seem like a late and lame attempt to be timely, when you consider that I, like gazillions of other parents, won't see it until it is moved from the New Releases section of Netflix into its appropriate category banishment, I am really quite ahead of schedule. And although I didn't quite get around to reading the book it is based on either, I am curious to see if there is any magic reality written into the relationship of mother and nanny.

I admit, I have a vested interest since I have been a nanny -- not for a family of ridiculously wealthy self-obsessed hidden-cameraing and couture shopping folks but rather, for one of those Pacific Northwest types with the organic garden and bagel store in town. They were good parents and good people with no idea how to treat someone who was doing more than spreading cream cheese for them. My pay was mediocre, my hours were long and I regularly arrived at 7 a.m. on my bike to find that there were no diapers or milk for the day. I kept coming back because I loved the child deeply and I still wonder if the parents got that. The job ended in an unfortunate tax dispute and I dreamed about the baby for over a year.

The nanny and mommy relationship, at least as portrayed in Hollywood from Mary Poppins to The Hand That Rocks the Cradle to Uncle Buck and now to The Nanny Diaries, is dissected in a great read by The Boston Globe's Joanna Weiss. She has many thoughtful observations on the roles written to extricate this delicate relationship between caregiver by blood and caregiver by hire, including the conveniently dead mother, the over-sexualized nanny, the desexualized and thus non-threatening nanny, and (gasp) the working mother. In the end, she says (and I paraphrase), no matter how fabulous and spoonful of sugaring the nanny is, it always comes back to the kid needing her mommy. This is good and right, of course. But for the nanny, it is hard and heartbreaking. Today, I understand it a bit from both sides.

I have no idea if this movie is worth your twenty dollars in tickets and forty dollars in popcorn, sodas and sugary goodness you wouldn't dare let your kids eat in the theater, or if it will be worth the four bucks it costs to rent and the eight dollars in overdue fees I will inevitably fork over. But I do know that it is good to see and imagine and write and discuss the relationship between mother and nanny more and not leave it to silver screen stereotypes to define.

Strollerderby : caregivers

Childcare Relationships and Bickering Parents Affect Kids' Stress Hormones

Nannies and Mommies: What's Real and What's Just Hollywood?