Experiences that children have with their peers while in a care setting is also relevant in whether or not a certain setting benefits young children. .
Infant Child Care.
The concept that nonmaternal care in the first year of life might have an adverse affect on the security of the infant's attachment to mother has been a subject of discussion and debate. Concerns that nonmaternal rearing in the early years with affective and cognitive deficits led to concerns that maternal deprivation posed hazards for the emotional well-being of young children. It was argued that "elevated rates of insecure attachment, especially insecure-avoidant relationships, were linked to child care; and that babies experience daily separation as maternal rejection."" (Child Development, 1997, p. 860) Basically, it was believed that by leaving an infant in the care of someone else, the infant would lose confidence in the availability of the parent and therefore hurt the opportunities for infant-parent interaction. There have been studies conducted in the past comparing routine nonmaternal care in the first year and elevated rates of insecure attachment. These studies conducted as early as 1969 came to the conclusion that "infants who experienced 20 or more hours per week of routine child care in the first year were significantly more likely to be classified as insecurely attached to their mothers between 12 and 18 months of age than were infants with more limited child care experience."" (Belsky and Rovine, 1988) .
Despite the consistency of findings conducted in past decades a more recent investigation conducted by the NICHD (National Institute of Childrens Health and Development) Study of Early Child Care revealed no significant relation between child-care experience and attachment security. The study, which was conducted in the 1990's, was the largest multistudy analyses ever conducted. It also had the advantage of being a longitudinal investigation, in which infants were identified at birth and followed through their first 3 years.