FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2001
Daycare study roils in further controversy
by Jessica Garrison
Los Angeles Times
April 25, 2001
A week after a high-profile study
cast a negative light on child care, re
searchers - including the study's lead
statistician - are sharply questioning
whether their controversial work has
been misrepresented.
As publicly reported last week, the
study showed that the more time
preschoolers spend in childcare, the
more likely their teachers were to re
port behavior problems such as ag
gression and defiance in kindergarten.
But several academics involved in
the study feel that its conclusion was
overstated and that other important
findings never reached the public. In
the aftermath, a rift has been exposed
among the research team, and ques
tions from other experts have caused
the researchers to do additional analy
sis before publishing their findings.
"I feel we have been extremely ir
responsible, and Fm very sorry the re
sults have been presented in this way,"
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said Margaret Burchinal, the lead stat
istician on the study funded by Na
tional Institute of Child Health and
Human Development. "I'm afraid we
have scared parents, especially since
most parents in this country (have to
work)."
Several of those involved in the
project accuse Jay Belsky, a profes
sor at the University of London and
one of the lead researchers on the
study, of downplaying other impor
tant information when he presented
the findings at a news conference last
week. They accuse him of having an
anti-child care agenda.
For his part, Belsky charges that his
colleagues are "running from this data
like a nuclear bomb went off' because
they are committed to putting an ap
proving stamp on child care.
"I sometimes feel I'm in the old So
viet Union, where only certain facts
are allowed to be facts, and only cer
tain news is allowed to be news," he
said. "I've yet to hear a compelling
argument that's evenhandedly applied
to all our data."
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Within academia, the dispute is
part of a years-long battle between
Belsky and his colleagues over
whether child care harms children.
For the public, the high-profile
dispute illustrates how difficult it can
be to separate ideology from objec
tive findings, particularly on a topic
as volatile as child care.
"The bottom line is this isn't a
simple story," said Harvard Univer
sity researcher Kathleen McCartney,
one of the investigators on the study.
The findings predictably sent par
ents into a tizzy, with many work
ing parents worrying about or hotly
defending their choices, and stay-at
home moms feeling vindicated.
But several researchers on the
team said that if the public had been
told other information about the
study, the reaction might have been
quite different. For example:
• While 17 percent of
kindergarteners who had been in
child-care showed more assertive
and aggressive behaviors, that pro
portion is the norm for the general
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population of children and adoles
cents. (Only 9 percent of children who
spent most of their time with their
mothers were rated by teachers as
showing the more troubling behav
iors.)
• Family interactions counted more
toward children's future behavior than
hours spent in child care.
• In addition, researchers said that the
statistics themselves are very modest:
Few children exhibited above-average
behavior problems, and the problems
themselves were not drastic.
Some parents whose children are
subjects in the ongoing study have ex
pressed concern and anger over the
latest controversy. Investigators are
worried it may cause some families to
drop out, and might jeopardize their
chances of having funding renewed in
2004, said Alison Clarke-Stewart, a
researcher at the University of Cali-
fomia, Irvine
The massive research project,
widely considered the largest and most
authoritative of its kind in the nation,
started 10 years ago with investigators
White House crafts image of Bush
as blunt, honest leader
by Naftali Bendavid
Chicago Tribune
April 24, 2001
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer, describing how Presi
dent Bush expressed himself dur
ing the recent U.S.-China crisis,
said, "The president spoke out di
rectly, plainly, forthrightly and
wisely."
A few weeks earlier, Fleischer
was asked what message Bush
was sending with the expulsion
of 52 Russian diplomats. Bush
was acting "in a realistic and di
rect way," Fleischer responded.
"He's a plain-spoken man."
That picture of Bush as a blunt,
honest leader, a straight-shooter
whose word can be trusted, is
central to the image the White
House is trying to craft in the
early months of Bush's administration
The notion of Bush as someone who
always tells the truth, a theme heavily
promoted during the campaign, has be
come even more important to Bush now
that he is in the White House.
One goal is to offset what is thought
to be public weariness with the per
ceived slickness of former President
Bill Clinton and with politicians in gen
eral. Another goal is to turn a potential
Bush weakness--his lack of eloquence
and oratorical fluidity--into a virtue.
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"If you have George Bush and you People see you as you are."
want to package him and present him, At least in some quarters, the image
what are you going to play to?" said has taken hold. Questions may persist
Paul Brace, a political scientist at about Bush's abilities, but that does not
Houston's Rice University. "He is not detract from, and may even enhance, a
going to be a great orator. He's just not. feeling among some of the public that
You want to keep his comments short. Bush is honest.
So 'Plain-speaking, honest George' is Jennifer Walters, an administrative
a good theme." assistant in Billings, Mont.. said she is
Jeff Myers, who teaches communi- not a huge Bush fan. But "1 like his
cations at Bryan College in Dayton, persona," she said during a recent presi-
Tenn., said the contrast with Clinton is, dential visit to Montana. "He's not
particularly important. fake."
."-Saying that President Bush is a
straight-talking man is an easy way of
making a distinction between this ad
ministration and the previous adminis
tration," Myers said. " 'What you see
is what you get' is the impression, and
that plays well with people, especially
after eight years of people not ever be
ing sure what they're getting."
The danger for Bush may be that
when he changes positions, as politi
cians inevitably do, the political conse
quences could be more serious. Voters
accepted when they elected Clinton that
he cut corners in some ways, but Bush
was elected on a promise to tell it
straight.
Bush already has abandoned his cam
paign pledge to limit carbon dioxide
emissions at power plants. Some mili
tary leaders have complained that he has
backed off a commitment to give them
more money. And Bush will almost cer
tainly have to embrace a tax cut of less
than $1.6 trillion despite repeated as
sertions that nothing else will do.
"He has--if not changed positions on
issues--has gone from right to left and
back to the middle," said Judith Trent,
who teaches political communication at
the University of Cincinnati. "Maybe
that's why it's necessary for them to say
he always tells it like it is. That is a per-
going room to room down hospital
corridors asking new mothers if they
would participate in a study of child
development. More than 1,000 of the
original subjects in HI cities are still
signed up, and investigators have fol
lowed the children ever since.
The investigators visit with their par
ents, giving them personality tests and
check lists to fill out. They spend hours
observing classrooms and day care
centers, talking with teachers and day
care providers. And then they use com
plex statistical analysis to figure out
what it all means.
Data from the early years of the
study - which has cost the federal gov
ernment $BO million so far - is avail
able to the public, and all the data even
tually will be made available.
The most recent findings were pre
sented at a conference last week of the
Society for Research and Child Devel
opment in Minneapolis. But because
the work has not yet been published,
it has also not yet been formally cri
tiqued by other experts.
Above all, the researchers said they
of Lebanon in the Oval Office of the
sona they arc trying to give him. We
don't know yet whether it is stick ing. -
Bush's aides are trying to make sure
it does stick. In a recent interview.
White House aide Mary Matalin put it
this way: "The operative thing here is
that he says what he means and means
what he says. That defines the admin
istration.-
"That's who he is," added Karl Rove,
Bush's senior adviser. "I think people
just instinctively sense that. Being
president is sort of like "The Emperor's
New Clothes' at the end of the day.
Bush himself regularly advertises his
own honesty, as in a news conference
in March when he was asked about his
meetings with foreign leaders.
"I'm a pretty straightforward fellow,"
Bush said. "I don't mind making my
case, and it's important. It's important
for world leaders to know exactly
where the United States is coming from.
... A friend is somebody who's willing
to tell the truth."
Bush also emphasizes this theme
when praising others. In Chicago on
March 6, Bush paid a high compliment
to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-
"He's the kind of fellow who when
he gives you his word, he means it,"
Bush said. "Sometimes that doesn't
happen all the time in the political pro
cess. Sometimes they'll look you in the
eye and not mean it. The speaker means
it when he tells you something."
For the Bush team, part of the mes
sage means demonstrating that Bush
honors his campaign promises. As
Texas governor, Bush had considerable
success outlining a handful of big ideas
in his campaign and then pushing them
through, and he is trying to do the same
thing in the White House.
"Bush is trying to capitalize on per
haps an image problem that Clinton
need to do more analysis because they
don't know what the numbers mean.
Some studies by their nature can
leave more room for interpretation
based on ideology, scientists say. A
study recording whether patients died
or not has a result that is clearly good
or had. The child care study, by con
trast, measured how children were be
having at kindergarten age - a mea
sure whose "goodness" or "badness"
may he much less clear.
Such a study tempts alternative
interpretations much more richly,"
said Daniel Kevtes, a scholar of the
history of science.
All the researchers said they are
committed to continue working with
each other in the future. Ultimately,
they said, the conflict may benefit the
project.
It is unusual to have a collabora
tion. for It) years that has included
people having these different views,"
Clarke-Stewart said. " That still
means there's room for interpretation
here."
White House Tuesday.
had, which was that he was manipula
tive," said Brace, who studies presiden-
tial images
"Bush needs to have extraordinary
credibility right now, given the close
margins in Congress. He needs to
speak with authority, and he has to be
believed."
Rove, Bush's top political strategist,
said such follow-through is crucial.
- It's absolutely vital," Rove said. "To
do otherwise undermines confidence
in the system. These elections have to
standfor not just a popularity contest,
but people have to have confidence that
if they vote for someone based on
something they, say that they're
actuallycommitted to doing it."
It also sends a politically useful mes
sage about Bush. Americans cherish
the notion that their presidents are men
of truth, from George Washington's "1
cannot tell a lie" to "Honest Abe" Lin
coln to "Give-'em-hell Harry" Truman.
The less attractive side of this cru
sade has been aides' willingness to de
ride Bush's opponents as hypocrites
and liars in contrast.
As Bush began his presidential cam
paign, supporters contrasted his blunt
ness with Clinton--who claimed that
oral sex was not sex and quibbled over
the meaning of the word "is."
While Bush might stumble over his
words, his backers said, he embodied
a simple American decency.
But Bush was not running against
Clinton, and his aides soon started at
tacking other rivals on their integrity.
Shortly after Sen. John McCain, R-
Ariz., surged in the New Hampshire
primary, the Bush campaign accused
him of being someone who "says one
thing and does another."
Once Bush won the Republican
nomination, one of his campaign's
principal messages was that his rival,
Democratic Vice President Al Gore,
was untruthful. The Bush team issued
a perpetual stream of press releases
headlined, "The Gore Detector: A
Regular Report on Al Gore's Adven
tures With the Truth."
Now Bush is not in a political race,
but like all presidents, he is constantly
shaping his image with a view to ap
proval ratings and ultimately to re-elec
tion. And the image he wants is clear.