Child care centers are also known to increase emotional and mental health of the children when they are attending child care programs. There have been multiple studies that prove that mental health increases occur when children are enrolled in child care centers. Based on the results from those studies that prove mental health increases in children that attend child care centers, a mother interviewed by Boodman admitted that a child care center would be best for the stability of her child’s mental health (Boodman par. 2). Not only are the child care centers beneficial, but actually being with the parents when they are stressed out can negatively affect the child’s brain development (Grose par. 13). Grose’s point is that "There's even some evidence that extremely stressed parents can negatively affect brain development in their children” (Grose par. 13). Many new parents get stressed out more easily than other caretakers because they have to learn how to adjust their schedule to take care of the new baby. If the parent is stressed while caring for their child, the parent could harm the development of his or her child. However, that harm could be avoided if the parent would allow the child to attend a child care center with gentle and calm staff members.
Opposition Parents that do not like child care centers believe that parents should support the health of their children and improve mental health of their children better than the child care center employees. Author of “Parents Cope with Day Care Concerns” Marilyn Elias reminds parents that "What raised eyebrows was that the more time preschoolers spent in day care centers--not with nannies or at family day care homes--the more aggressive and disobedient they were in sixth grade, according to teacher reports" (Elias par. 8). Elias’s research implies that if a child is put into a child care facility rather than a one-on-one situation with a parent or nanny, then the child will be more likely to have behavioral problems. These behavioral problems are considered negative mental health problems; however, there is no sure way to link the bad behavior to the child care the child received because there are many different variables that could affect the results: "Because the study is observational and not a controlled experiment in which children are randomly assigned to one group or another, it is impossible to determine cause and effect, researchers caution” (Boodman par. 11). Bad behavior of a middle schooler cannot be fully linked to the type of child care that they received as child. However, stress from parents negatively affect the children’s health.