Nearly three-quarters of American mothers work full- or part-time--usually out of financial necessity--and require regular child care. How do such arrangements affect children? If they are not at home with their mothers, will they be badly behaved, intellectually delayed, or emotionally stunted?

Backed by the best current research, Alison Clarke-Stewart and Virginia Allhusen bring a reassuring answer to parents' fears and offer guidance for making difficult decisions. Quality child care, they show, may be even more beneficial to children than staying at home. Although children who spend many hours in care may be unruly compared with children at home, those who attend quality programs tend to be cognitively ahead of their peers. They are just as attached to their mothers and reap the additional benefits of engaging with other children.

Ultimately, it's parents who matter most; what happens at home makes the difference in how children develop. And today's working mothers actually spend more time interacting with their children than stay-at-home mothers did a generation ago.

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Part One: A Nation Transformed                      5
1 Making the Best of Difficult Choices                9
2 The Evolution of Childcare in the United States    27
3 Childcare in the United States Today               43

Part Two: A Quarter Century of Research            63
4 Studying Childcare                                 69
5 Effects of Care                                    83
6 Variations in Care                                 105
7 The Caregiver's Role                               127
8 The Family's Place                                 150

Part Three: Looking to the Future                 165
9 Making Better Childcare Choices                    169
10 Planning Better Childcare Research                 191
11 Implementing Better Childcare Solutions           206
Notes                                             219
Index                                             291