Another negative for child-care...

Nothing can replace the care/love/attention of a mother.

Children raised by their mothers perform better in developmental tests than those looked after in nurseries or by relatives and childminders, according to a study.

The findings, to be presented to the National Childminding Association conference today, will be welcomed by those who believe a mother's place is in the home, and disturb those mothers whose financial constraints give them no choice but to work.

But the authors of the report have claimed the problem also highlights the quality of child care in Britain.

They cite crowded nurseries and inexperienced au pairs. The study, claimed to be one of the most comprehensive of its kind, focused on 1,200 children from birth to three years old, in Oxfordshire and north London.

Mothers were interviewed when their babies were three months old, and again when they were 10, 18, 36 and 51 months. Children were asked to perform a series of tasks with attention paid to performance and eye contact with adults.

The result, according to the co-author Penelope Leach, was that children not raised by their mothers showed higher levels of aggression.