Develop. Med. Child Neurol. 1964,6, 201-202

The Outcome of Daily Substitute Mothering

THE research in progress at the Centre for the Study of Human Development, spon- sored jointly by the Institute of Education and the Institute of Child Health of the University of London, was not planned specifically to deal with the question of substitute care of the children of working mothers, but in the course of compiling histories of children from birth and through childhood much information rele- vant to this question has been amassed. The study is a longitudinal one of a group of childrenborninacentral areaof London; I67 children have remained in this study until their 8th year, and half of these had been left with substitute caretakers, while their mothers worked, for some period before they entered school at the age of five years.

The children are grouped in a number of ways so as to highlight factors thought to affect the outcome, such as the age of first substitute mothering, nursery v. private care, the stability of caretaking arrange- ments, and the amount of prior separation from the mother. The criterion of outcome that we first adopted consisted of an inventory of the child’s behaviour com- pleted by the mother when the child was six years old; and it was part of a routine procedure in which neither she nor the

A Research in Progress

Terence Moore

workers had in mind the possible connec- tion between this behaviour and the history of maternal or substitute care. Certain significant differences have been found between the groups; in particular unstable arrangements have correlated with many kinds of difficulties in the child of infant-school age, and early commence- ment of substitute care has often led to emotional detachment between the mother and child. Few significant differences have been found between children brought up by their own mothers and those in the stable care of a single substitute mother, or at a good nursery school, from about the age of three years, but there have been indications that the latter group tend to be more independent, less inhibited and perhaps less conforming.

Many pitfalls attend this kind of research, and I have attempted to validate my findings by repeating the enquiry with the mothers a year later, making direct observations of the children, analysing the data for boys and girls separately, and by eliminating as many as possible of the biasing factors. In general these steps have led to a confirmation and extension of the findings, although the pictures that have emerged for boys and girls have been somewhat different. Substitute care at pre-

Centre for the Study of Human Development, 41 Brunswick Square. London, W.C.l.

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school age does seem to correlate with certain types of behaviour between the ages of six and eight. The advantages for personality development, however, are not necessarily all on one side. If children who have had daily substitute mothering are sometimes less ready to fall in with the wishes of their own parents and are consequently difficult to handle at times, those who have never left their mother’s side before entering school sometimes appear too conforming and fastidious, lacking in independence and prone to anxiety. Often the mothers of this latter

group, especially where boys are concerned, appear over-anxious and over-involved with their children. A moderate degree of freedom from maternal apron-strings from about 34 years of age, such as is provided by a good nursery school, would perhaps suit most children best.

Alternatively, fairly frequent visits to friends or relatives whom the child likes while the mother goes shopping or does a few hours’ work, or occasional week- ends apart, may relieve both parties from a too-constraining mutual depen- dence.

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