title: Hours in non-parental child care are related to language development in a longitudinal cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The effects of child care services on several domains of child development have been extensively investigated, but evidence regarding the effects of child care on language development remains inconclusive.
  
  
  METHODS
  Within a large-scale population-based study, we examined the longitudinal associations between non-parental child care and language development from 1 to 6 years (n = 5375).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results showed that more hours in non-parental child care were associated with better language abilities. However, more hours in care in the first year of life were associated with less language proficiency at ages 1 to 1.5. At later ages, this effect disappeared and language proficiency increased. Furthermore, children who spent more hours in centre-based care had better language scores than children in home-based care. Ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender or parity did not change these results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This large, multi-ethnic study demonstrates beneficial effects of non-parental child care, particularly centre-based care, on language proficiency later in childhood.
authors.affiliation: School of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M P C M
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Luijk
authors.affiliation: Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linting
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henrichs
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal and Centre de Recherche du CHU Sainte-Justine, Montréal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Herba
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Child and Family Studies, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Verhage
authors.affiliation: School of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Schenk
authors.affiliation: School of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Institute for Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Arends
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Raat
authors.affiliation: The Generation R Study Group, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: V W V
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Jaddoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofman
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Verhulst
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tiemeier
authors.affiliation: School of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: van IJzendoorn
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: centre-based child care; infancy; language development; longitudinal; non-parental child care; preschool