Adolescent emotional and behavioural outcomes of nonparental preschool childcare

Purpose This study aimed to identify whether nonparental preschool childcare was associated with adolescent mental health outcomes as measured by the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Method This study was a secondary analysis of data from the Croydon Assessment of Learning Study. From a general population sample of 2,726 adolescents tested for cognitive ability, additional data were collected from a stratified sub-sample of 197 subjects. A semi-structured interview asked parents about preschool childcare and early development concerns. Parent and teacher SDQ and IQ data were collected. Complete data were available from 167 subjects. Using nonparental preschool childcare as the ‘treatment’ effect and parental childcare as the ‘control’, propensity score matching analyses were used to analyse the effect of nonparental childcare on adolescent SDQ outcomes. Results Nonparental childcare was reported by 49% of the sample and was not significantly associated with conduct, emotional, peer or prosocial SDQ subscales, but was found to have a significant average treatment effect on symptoms of attention/hyperactivity, on average raising the symptom subscale score by 1.8 (95% confidence interval 0.12–3.65). The propensity score analysis ensures the results could not be explained by the available measures that influenced receiving nonparental care. Increased time spent in nonparental childcare was associated with greater attention/hyperactivity symptoms. Conclusions Nonparental preschool care showed little association with generalized psychopathology but may be associated with hyperactivity and inattention problems. Replication of these findings in prospective studies is required.