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The child-care environment: Conceptualizations, assessments, and issues
Abstract
This chapter is about the assessment of child care. The authors start by laying out all of the aspects of child care that can be assessed and then move on to a description of existing instruments, while emphasizing the aspects of child care that they assess and those that they do not. They then discuss issues pertaining to the validity of existing instruments and of individual child-care variables. They also tackle the difficult questions of how to choose among the many aspects of child care that can be evaluated and how to choose among the different indexes of these aspects. They conclude with recommendations for future directions for theory and research about the assessment of child care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... The quality of childcare determines various facets of young children's development, including their early brain development (Gunnar, 1998), cortisol levels and well-being (Groeneveld, Vermeer, van IJzendoorn, & Linting, 2010), cognitive abilities (Duncan, 2003;NICHD ECCRN, 2000b), and socioemotional development (Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001). Structural determinants and process determinants are identified as two primary factors that determine childcare quality (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;Phillipsen, Burchinal, Howes, & Cryer, 1997;Vandell, 1996), which have been applied in assessing all types of non-parental childcare settings on a large scale (Burchinal, Howes, & Kontos, 2002;Dowsett, Huston, Imes, & Gennetian, 2008;NICHD ECCRN, 2000a). Structural determinants refer to different aspects of the childcare settings, such as the caregiver-to-child ratio, the qualifications and educational background of a caregiver, and physical environment conditions (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;Phillipsen et al., 1997). ...
... Structural determinants and process determinants are identified as two primary factors that determine childcare quality (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;Phillipsen, Burchinal, Howes, & Cryer, 1997;Vandell, 1996), which have been applied in assessing all types of non-parental childcare settings on a large scale (Burchinal, Howes, & Kontos, 2002;Dowsett, Huston, Imes, & Gennetian, 2008;NICHD ECCRN, 2000a). Structural determinants refer to different aspects of the childcare settings, such as the caregiver-to-child ratio, the qualifications and educational background of a caregiver, and physical environment conditions (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;Phillipsen et al., 1997). Process determinants, on the other hand, refer to the dynamic factors that occur during the process of caregiving (Phillipsen et al., 1997;Vandell, 1996), including the interaction between children and caregivers as well as children's participation in activities initiated by caregivers (NICHD ECCRN, 2002). ...
This multiple case study investigates the involvement of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) in Hong Kong early childcare. Three middle-class families were chosen; one parent, one FDH, one teacher, and one preschool child within each family were interviewed. A grounded theory analysis approach was adopted to examine the interviews. Analyses revealed the following four themes: (1) reasons for FDHs’ involvement in childcare; (2) discrepancies in childcare beliefs and practices; (3) interactions among children, parents, FDHs, and teachers; and (4) the influence of FDH-involved childcare on child development. Parents were driven more by the financial benefits of FDH-provided childcare rather than by pedagogical considerations; however, they also expected the FDHs to discipline children according to their educational goals. Because FDHs could only offer basic childcare, they frequently came into conflict with the parents. FDHs also faced multiple challenges with the school teachers, with the children, and even from the local cultural context. These conflicts and challenges FDHs experienced had a substantial impact on the childcare provided, and subsequently on the children’s language and socioemotional development. A theoretical framework was established to conceptualize FDH-involved non-parental childcare. The implications for childcare-related policies in Hong Kong and other societies were discussed.
... The Child Care HOMEs were not developed because there are no current techniques for assessing the quality of care in family child care homes. A number of procedures already exist for measuring these environments (see review by Friedman & Amadeo, 1999). Among them are the Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS) and Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) by Harms and Clifford (1984), the PROFILE by Abbott-Shim and Sibley (1993), the Caregiver Interaction Scale by Arnett (1989), the Adult Involvement Scale (AIS) by Howes and Stewart (1987), and the Observational Record of the Caregiving Environment (ORCE) developed by the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1996). ...
... The choice of which measures to use depends on the goals of those doing the assessments and the resources they have to do the assessments. Friedman and Amadeo (1999) note that the goals for assessing the quality of care children receive in non-parental care vary considerably. Not every evaluation of child care is concerned with the "average quality of care available" in a particular setting, as might be the case for those focused on licensing or program improvement. ...
Versions of the HOME Inventory for use in family child care homes are described. The Infant/Toddler version is designed for use when children are less than 3 years old; the Early Childhood version for children ages 3–6. Psychometric characteristics of the child care versions of HOME are similar to the psychometric characteristics found for the original HOME used to measure the family environment. Child Care HOME scores were strongly related to intensive observational measures of behavior among child care providers and to measures of physical and organizational aspects of the environment. Because the inventories take less time and training to administer than most current measures of family child care, they may provide a way for licensing workers and others responsible for maintaining quality in child care to obtain useful information about this widely used but minimally monitored form of non-parental care.
... Process quality indicators reflect the quality of exchanges between educators and children, whereas structural quality features describe the aspects of the classroom that are more regulateable (Vandell, Belsky, Burchinal, Steinberg, & Vandergrift, 2010). While process quality appears to have a direct effect on children's outcomes, structural quality is thought to have an indirect effect, mediated by process quality (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;NICHD, 2002). For example, NICHD (2002) found that educators' social competence mediated the correlation between educator/child ratios and children's engagement (Hestenes, Kontos, & Bryan, 1993) and cognitive outcomes. ...
Cognitive sensitivity refers to a person’s ability to create a cognitively stimulating environment when interacting with a less experienced partner while being attuned to this partner’s emotional state. We developed the Educator Cognitive Sensitivity (ECS) scale to measure the quality of individual educator’s interactions with children in Early Childhood Education and Care settings (ECEC). The ECS scale was designed to be easy to train and quick to administer. Three hundred and fifty educators from 135 classrooms in 69 ECEC providers in Toronto were observed and coded using the ECS scale. Results show that it has excellent internal consistency with all items loading onto a single factor. In terms of concurrent validity, it was moderately correlated to the different subscales of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System and a short form of the Infant/Toddler Environmental Scale-Revised. Variance Component Analysis revealed that the majority of variance in ECS scores is explained by differences between educators, calling into question the practice of assessing quality of interaction at the classroom level. The relatively efficient ECS scale is a promising new measure of interaction in ECEC settings.
... Early childhood research studies show that children's developmental achievements are related to the quality of early childhood programs ( Barnett, Jung, Wong, Cook and Lamy, 2007, Burchinal et al., 2000, Peisner-Feinberg and Yazejian, 2010). A significant relationship between the achievement of children in developmental areas and classroom quality has led researchers and policy makers to assess and to work on how to improve the quality of preschool programs ( Buysse, Wesley, Bryant and Gardner, 1999;Friedman and Amadeo, 1999;La Paro, Sexton and Snyder, 1998;Spiker, Hebbeler and Barton, 2011;Wall, Kisker, Peterson, Carta and Hyun-Joo, 2006). With this work, the results of the studies initiated have shown that high-quality programs should be appropriate to developmental characteristics of all children either with or without special needs and sensitive to the needs of all children ( Burchinal et al., 2000;Peisner-Feinberg and Yazejian, 2010). ...
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of the inclusive preschool classrooms by comparing the evaluations of both independent observers and preschool teachers. The design of the study was a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative research. The study was carried out in 40 inclusive preschool classrooms in Ankara. Forty preschool teachers and 5 independent observers participated in the study. Data were collected by using the information form and Classroom Quality Measurement Form. The quantitative data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test which is appropriate in terms of the research design, and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis method. As a result of the analyses, the teachers regarded the classrooms as "adequate" in terms of quality, whereas independent observers regarded the same classrooms as "inadequate" and there was a significant difference between the scoring of teachers and independent observers. Since it was seen that the quality of the inclusive preschool classrooms in the study was low, it was thought that studies should be conducted to provide high-quality programs to all children and especially for children with special needs.
... In addition, we examined how child-centered beliefs and motivation for professional development may act as mediators in the associations between professional training and feedback and teachers' social and emotional responsiveness. We investigated these associations after controlling for a number of other relevant structural quality variables (Friedman and Amadeo 1999), for example, teacher and program-level characteristics, including teachers' years of experience, the program's accreditation status, and the ratio of children to teachers in each teacher's classroom. ...
Background
Young children’s social and emotional competence is a key predictor of their current and future academic and social success. Although preschool teachers are critical socializing agent of children’s social and emotional development, we know little about factors associated with preschool teachers’ social and emotional responsiveness. Objective
This study examined how preschool teachers’ educational training and regularity of receiving observational feedback were associated with teachers’ social and emotional responsiveness, as mediated by more personal characteristics such as teachers’ child-centered beliefs and motivation for professional development. Method
We investigated direct and indirect associations using a national survey of 1129 preschool teachers in the United States. ResultsWe found that teachers with an associate degree, compared to those without, were more likely to respond negatively to children’s emotional displays. Taking child development or early education coursework was associated with less negative social guidance. Receiving regular observational feedback was associated with greater encouragement of expressing emotion and with less negative social guidance. We also found significant indirect associations. For example, teachers who received regular observational feedback had greater motivation for professional development, which in turn, predicted more positive social guidance and emotional responsiveness. Conclusions
More stringent educational criteria for preschool educators and ongoing observational feedback may support teachers’ optimal social and emotional responsiveness. In addition, educational training should incorporate child-centered theory and practices and observational feedback should include information specific to professional development resources.
... The outcome of quality for children seems to be related to how teachers use available resources and use the experiences of the specific child. This is in turn influenced by structural quality indicators such as teacher-child ratio, as well as teacher's experience and training (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999). ...
... Their model proposes "better care-quality, [and] better outcomes for young children", and as they divide "care-quality" into two elements, structure and process, they examine the effect model of "structure → process → outcome" in a child-care setting (NICHD ECCRN, 2002). In this model, structure and process represent distal and proximal characteristics of environment, respectively (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;NICHD ECCRN, 2002). This is a mediation effect model, where process factors experienced by children (proximal), have direct effects on them, whereas structural factors, which are not experienced by children (distal), have an indirect effect through process factors. ...
The present study was conducted as a preliminary analysis of a 3-year longitudinal Global COE student survey. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 397 junior high school students and 484 high school students. From the result of bivariate correlational analysis, it was indicated that some differences between junior high school students and high school students exist between the relational elements of the environment (parental involvement, family relationship, student-teacher relationship, classroom disorderliness) and outcome variables such as academic achievement and quality of life. Our study also discusses the implications for future analysis using longitudinal data.
... Frequently, global measures of quality are used to assess caregiving and school environments, but many of these result in broad assessments that fail to explore the nuances of teachers' behaviors evident in everyday interactions (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999). Global measures are designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of quality, and resulting scores are frequently used in conjunction with funding allocation for early childhood programs and centers. ...
Observations of preservice teachers often lack information about specific strategies they use when guiding children's behavior. This study investigated how preservice teachers used verbal and non-verbal behavior modification techniques within structured and transition classroom contexts. Using an on-the-mark 20-second observe and 10-second record method, eleven preservice teachers were observed in classrooms for two morning hours. A repeated measures MANOVA revealed two significant two-way interactions, which included types of modification techniques and types of contexts (Wilks's λ = .38, F(2, 9) = 7.37, p .05, Cohen's f = .88) and types of communication skills and types of contexts (Wilks's λ = .64, F(1, 10) = 5.53, p .05, Cohen's f = .74). Implications for future research and practice include more focused observations of preservice teachers and children's responses to various verbal and non-verbal strategies along with more education about how to use positive guidance strategies in real-life classroom situations.
... Measuring specific aspects of the child care environment will improve our understanding of how child care affects child development (NICHD ECCRN, 2003a), yet in a review, Friedman and Amadeo (1999) conclude that we do not yet know all the aspects of the child care environment that are related to developmental outcomes. The measures included in their review are the predominant measures that are still being used, more than a decade later. ...
This study investigates the reliability and validity of the Child Care Ecology Inventory (CCEI), a measure of the quality of family child care in the social domain. The CCEI focuses on research-based environmental features and caregiving practices for promoting positive social development in preschool-age children. A total of 198 family child care homes in the Northwest USA participated. Good scale reliabilities were found for the measures of the environment (Enrichment and Organization) and for caregivers’ practices (Monitoring, Positive Attention, Promoting Social Skills, and Teaching Rules) and interrater reliability was adequate for research purposes. The CCEI was associated with other commonly used measures of child care quality that assessed similar environmental and caregiving constructs. Linear regression models were run to determine the features of family child care quality that were concurrently associated with observed child behavior. The child–caregiver ratio, Environment Organization, and caregivers’ Teaching Rules were negatively associated with children's problem behavior (noncompliance and aggression). Caregivers’ provision of Planned Activities/Routines and Positive Attention were associated with positive child behavior. Results indicate that different aspects of quality are related to different aspects of children's social interactions and behaviors.
... One way to categorize influences on children is to divide the environment into a continuum ranging from proximal (close) to distal (distant) aspects of the environment [9]. Aspects of the environment directly experienced by the child are labeled proximal and include both physical and social dimensions. ...
Incorporating care practices and resources for care into existing health, nutrition, and integrated programmes can have significant positive effects on children's growth and development. Correlational studies and a few efficacy trials suggest the promise of this approach for improving the survival, growth, and development of children, particularly those under three years of age. This paper defines the concept of care, clarifies characteristics of nutrition programmes that include care, and describes four intervention strategies for health and nutrition that incorporated care. It summarizes lessons learned from these and other experiences and current actions that UNICEF and others are taking regarding care, and suggests further steps.
... At the institutional level, the settings that have received the most empirical attention are day care, Head Start, school, and afterschool programming. Measures that have been developed to assess these settings focus on qualifications of the adults who are interacting with children (e.g., educational background, certifications); adult-child ratios; environmental characteristics, including safety features; developmental appropriateness of materials available to children; and qualities of caregiver-child relationships and interactions (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999;Rutter & Maughan, 2002). Gathering information about the quality of out-ofhome environments that involve nonparental relationships and how these may transact with family processes is necessary to our understanding of how to ensure that typically developing children have access to quality environments that foster competencies and that children who are at risk or manifesting problems have access to appropriate interventions implemented in the same or similar settings. ...
... Many studies on evaluating the effects of child care interventions have utilized global outcome measures of child care quality. Reviews of existing research suggest that several important dimensions of child care quality are not being adequately measured (Friedman & Amadeo, 1999; Lamb, 2000). Studies using more global measures of child care quality have had mixed results in predicting children's developmental outcomes, particularly in the social domain. ...
The quality of the child care environment and caregiver practices can potentially have significant, lasting impact on children’s social development. This study involves the development and a small-scale efficacy trial of the Carescapes program, a video-based training program that focuses on promoting positive social development in young children attending family child care. Fifty-seven caregivers who provided child care in their homes were randomly assigned to immediate intervention or waitlist control groups. Random coefficients analyses showed significant increased use of effective behavior management practices and decreased overall children’s problem behavior for the intervention group. A mediation model demonstrated that increases in effective behavior management practices were associated with decreases in problem behavior. A medium intervention effect was found for caregiver’s monitoring and a small effect for use of positive attention. These effects declined 5 months following the intervention. Implications for future efficacy and effectiveness studies in family child care settings that involve strategies to facilitate maintenance are discussed.
... Although there are measures of the physical environment for children in the home and day-care settings, 46,47 what has been missing, in large part, from the pediatric health care built environment literature has been the development of reliable and valid outcome measures that assess perceived satisfaction with the pediatric health care environment following modern measurement instrument design and evaluation methodologies. [16][17][18] In addition, research studies linking satisfaction with the pediatric health care built environment of an existing facility to design changes for a new, planned pediatric facility, and then to parent satisfaction with health care services and staff satisfaction with coworker relationships, and ultimately to health outcomes are generally lacking in the pediatric health care literature. ...
In preparation for the design, construction, and postoccupancy evaluation of a new Children's Convalescent Hospital, focus groups were conducted and measurement instruments were developed to quantify and characterize parent and staff satisfaction with the built environment of the existing pediatric health care facility, a 30-year-old, 59-bed, long-term, skilled nursing facility dedicated to the care of medically fragile children with complex chronic conditions. The measurement instruments were designed in close collaboration with parents, staff, and senior management involved with the existing and planned facility. The objectives of the study were to develop pediatric measurement instruments that measured the following: (1) parent and staff satisfaction with the built environment of the existing pediatric health care facility, (2) parent satisfaction with the health care services provided to their child, and (3) staff satisfaction with their coworker relationships. The newly developed Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory scales demonstrated internal consistency reliability (average alpha = 0.92 parent report, 0.93 staff report) and initial construct validity. As anticipated, parents and staff were not satisfied with the existing facility, providing detailed qualitative and quantitative data input to the design of the planned facility and a baseline for postoccupancy evaluation of the new facility. Consistent with the a priori hypotheses, higher parent satisfaction with the built environment structure and aesthetics was associated with higher parent satisfaction with health care services (r =.54, p <.01; r =.59, p <.01, respectively). Higher staff satisfaction with the built environment structure and aesthetics was associated with higher coworker relationship satisfaction (r =.53; p <.001; r =.51; p <.01, respectively). The implications of the findings for the architectural design and evaluation of pediatric health care facilities are discussed.
Background
Most young children (0–3 years) attend formal childcare in Denmark, many of them fulltime. Yet recent reports of the quality of Danish childcare centers have shown that in more than one-third of nurseries, the interactions between caregivers and young children (0–3 years) are of “insufficient” quality, which constitutes a risk for affected children’s well-being and development. Effective interventions to improve childcare providers’ interactive skills are necessary.
Methods
In this randomized controlled trial, we test the effectiveness of the Caregiver Interaction Profile training, which focuses on improving six core interactive skills: sensitive responsiveness, respecting children’s autonomy, structuring and limit setting, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. We will recruit N = 200 childcare providers from nursery groups in Copenhagen (n = 100 training group, n = 100 waiting-list control group). Our primary outcomes are childcare providers’ six interactive skills named above, observed from video-recorded interactions in the nursery groups. The secondary goal of our study is to test whether the training boosts children’s social-emotional and linguistic development. To this end we aim to recruit N ≈ 500 children from participating childcare providers’ nursery groups (n ≈ 250 training group, n ≈ 250 waiting-list control group). We measure social-emotional and linguistic development with various standardized questionnaires, filled out by parents and childcare providers.
Discussion
If the training is effective at improving childcare providers’ interactive skills, then this will be an important foundation for implementation efforts, such as offering the training as part of the educational program of childcare providers. Future research should also evaluate whether the Caregiver Interaction Profile training is effective for childcare providers of older children (3–5 years) in Danish kindergartens.
Trial registration
This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov as “Testing the Effects of the Caregiver Interaction Profile Training on the Interactive Skills of Daycare Providers (CDP)” with registry ID NCT05654116. Registration date: 12/01/2022.
High-quality early childhood education appears to be particularly beneficial for disadvantaged children, since it may help reduce an initial achievement gap. Yet, these children are frequently enrolled in disadvantaged classrooms with lower quality levels. Thus, classroom composition and quality may be associated, but evidence is scarce. In this review, we gathered evidence regarding classroom composition indexes and their association with observed classroom quality, reported in 25 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The majority of studies were conducted in the United States, with disadvantaged samples of children. Classroom composition indexes used were mainly calculations of the percentage, proportion, and average/mean of a particular type of characteristic at the classroom level, that generally captured classroom homogeneity. Most studies focused on minority and socioeconomic status. ECERS and CLASS were the most frequently used standardized observation measures of classroom quality. Evidence suggests that in classrooms with a high concentration of children with minority status and from low income families, quality tends to be lower, particularly on the CLASS emotional and instructional support domains. Additional research, particularly outside the USA, focused primarily on the association between different types of classroom composition and ECE quality is warranted.
This chapter presents a model of Comprehensive Psychological Assessment that has been developed to inform the assessment process in both clinical and research settings and has been influenced by the core tenets of developmental psychopathology. While this model applies throughout the life span, the chapter illustrate the components and application of the model for children and adolescents. Conceptual issues such as item scaling and a test's factor structure are critical considerations for assessing the development of an individual or group. The chapter reviews some of the influences of psychometric issues on measures that try to describe developmental processes. It endorses utilizing a strategy of hypothesis-driven assessment, where each step in the evaluation is guided by hypotheses generated from currently available information. Just as the tenets of developmental psychopathology have influenced the Comprehensive Psychological Assessment model advances in the field of assessment will contribute to a richer understanding of developmental psychopathology.
Why the United States has failed to establish a comprehensive high-quality child care program is the question at the center of this book. Edward Zigler has been intimately involved in this issue since the 1970s, and here he presents a firsthand history of the policy making and politics surrounding this important debate. Good-quality child care supports cognitive, social, and emotional development, school readiness, and academic achievement. This book examines the history of child care policy since 1969, including the inside story of America's one great attempt to create a comprehensive system of child care, its failure, and the lack of subsequent progress. Identifying specific issues that persist today, Zigler and his coauthors conclude with an agenda designed to lead us successfully toward quality care for America's children.
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an observation measure designed to assess classroom quality in inclusive preschool programs, the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP). Developing the rating scale entailed systematic fieldwork in inclusive settings and review of the literature on preschool inclusion. Results from the validation study showed that the measure has good inter-rater agreement, is internally consistent, and shows a good factor structure. Correlations with other measures of classroom quality provided initial evidence for construct validity. This paper argues that traditional measures used to assess quality in early childhood classrooms are useful but may not be sufficient in capturing dimensions of quality that pertain particularly to the support for children with disabilities included in preschool programs.
With data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we used structural equation modeling to test paths from structural indicators of child-care quality, specifically caregiver training and child-staff ratio, through a process indicator to child outcomes. There were three main findings: (a) Quality of maternal caregiving was the strongest predictor of cognitive competence, as well as caregivers' ratings of social competence; (b) quality of nonmaternal caregiving was associated with cognitive competence and caregivers' ratings of social competence; and (c) there was a mediated path from both caregiver training and child-staff ratio through quality of nonmaternal caregiving to cognitive competence, as well as to caregivers' ratings of social competence, that was not accounted for entirely by family variables. These findings provide empirical support for policies that improve state regulations for caregiver training and child-staff ratios.
This paper evaluates the extent to which programs for improving nutrition in seven Asian countries evaluate care practices and resources for care, and how this understanding is incorporated into their plans. Care practices and resources for care are defined according to the UNICEF framework, and the more unfamiliar care practices are described. The value of including care in nutrition programs is shown through several model programs. The significance of care not only for nutrition, but also for child development is highlighted. The most commonly mentioned care practice in the seven countries was breastfeeding, and the most widely recognized resource for care was maternal education. Care practices such as psychosocial care and care for women received less attention, as did the autonomy or decision-making power of the caregiver. Although the importance of care practices and resources for care is recognized, recommendations are general and lack specificity. Program planners will need training in scientific disciplines such as psychology or anthropology in order to develop strategies for incorporating care into nutrition and child development programs.
Children from 10 sites in the United States were followed from birth to age 3 to determine how experiences in child care relate to cognitive and language development (Ns varied between 595 and 856, depending on the assessment). Multiple assessments of family and child care environments and of cognitive and language competence were collected. Analyses that adjusted for maternal vocabulary score, family income, child gender, observed quality of the home environment, and observed maternal cognitive stimulation indicated that the overall quality of child care, and language stimulation in particular, was consistently but modestly related to cognitive and language outcomes at ages 15, 24, and 36 months. The effect sizes for high (top quartile) versus low (bottom quartile) quality ranged from .18 to .48. After adjusting for child care quality, cumulative experience in center-based care was associated with better outcomes than was participation in other types of care. The amount of time children spent in care was not related to outcomes. Children in exclusive maternal care did not differ systematically from children in child care. Tests for lagged relations of earlier child care experiences to later performance (adjusting for current child care) showed that language stimulation predicted subsequent cognitive and language performance 9 to 12 months later. Although children in center care at age 3 performed better than children in other types of care, earlier experience in child care homes was associated with better performance at age 3 than was experience in other types of care. The relations of child care variables to outcomes did not vary consistently as a function of family income, quality of home environment, child gender, or ethnic group.
IntroductionWhy Is Child Care an Issue?Historical Changes in Maternal Employment and in Nonmaternal CareChild Care as a Challenge to Cultural Beliefs and to Scientific TheoriesConceptualizing Child CareThe Assessment of Child CareThe History of Research on Child Care and its Links to Child DevelopmentThe State of Knowledge about Child Care and Child DevelopmentDirections for Future ResearchConclusion
IntroductionConceptualizing ChildcareThe Assessment of ChildcareThe State of Knowledge about Childcare and Child DevelopmentChildcare and the Development of Children who Experienced Childcare in InfancyDirections for Future ResearchConclusion
References
The quality of experiences in child care has significant, lasting impact on children's development. With the growing number of young children attending child care homes, it is imperative to provide a safe environment which nurtures their development. In efforts to offer family child care providers with useful education and resources, this descriptive study summarizes the results of a survey of 178 family child care providers on their training needs. Focus group feedback from family child care providers attending training workshops on safety, environmental arrangements, and proactive behavior management is also described. The caregivers reported that training in behavior management has the highest priority. Participants described a need for low-cost training in the evening or on weekends that is relevant to family child care settings with one caregiver serving children of varying ages.
Working within a person–process–context framework, we investigated the relation of the level of preschool children's compliance to child temperament, caregiver–child interaction in the child care setting, child care quality, and contextual chaos. Participants were 86 preschoolers and their teachers. Our database included both questionnaires and observations in child care centers. Child compliance was predicted by child temperament, caregiver behaviors, daycare quality, and level of daycare chaos. Child difficult temperament moderated the influence of caregiver behaviors but did not moderate the influence of environmental chaos on child compliance. Caregiver behaviors did not act to mediate the relations between environmental chaos and compliance. The predictive variance increased as process and context variables were added to the initial person predictor model (additive coaction), and different sets of predictors were associated with committed, situational, and passive noncompliance. The present results indicate that different combinations of main effects predicted different outcomes, illustrating how multiple predictors relate to different aspects of child compliance.
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