A qualitative study of caregivers' attitudes about child care

Thirty-one caregivers and directors involved in various types of day care for young children were interviewed. Qualitative methods were used to assess their role identity constructs and attitudes toward parents and the child care profession. Caregivers thought of themselves as “mothers,” “grandmothers,” or “teachers.” These social role identities clustered with attitudes about parents and professional role (e.g., “mothers” tended to see parents as neglectful, while “teachers” felt parents failed to reinforce progress made in day care). The authors concluded that conflict over attachment issues contributed to problems between parents and caregivers.     

Children's Ways of Experiencing Peer Interaction

Educational practice in age integrated child groups rests on the assumption that children learn from their peers. The benefits of age integrated teaching is to enhance the value of heterogeneity in child groups. The fact that children are different from each other with different experiences is seen as an asset, which both children and teachers can benefit from. 22 children in a school class with children of mixed age; ranging from 7-9 years, were interviewed about their conceptions of peer interaction. How do children conceive peer collaboration, and what does it mean to children to teach someone something? A phenomenographic research approach is being used to discern the variation in ways of thinking about how children do when they teach someone something, and how they conceive peer collaboration at school. Children are conscious about the fact that they are able to teach their peers, and they can express this in different ways. Children also shift in their roles as “teacher” and “learner”. In some examples it is the “teacher” who plays the active role, in others it is the “learner” who has to be active by imitating the model/teacher.     

Developmental awareness and moral stage development in child Abuse

In an attempt to better understand why children who have been sexually assaulted commonly fail to reveal their victimization to parents or other adults, a study was undertaken in which the “engagement strategies” of 41 perpetrators were examined, exploring common rationalizations, threats, etc. aimed at insuring continued silence on the part of the victim. The “appeal” for silence offered by the perpetrator to the child was analyzed according to Kohlberg's stages of moral development.

Results indicate that perpetrators appear to alter their engagement strategies to coincide with the developmental level of the child, thus further insuring silence by appealing to criteria for assessing “appropriate” or “inappropriate” behaviors (eg. sexual contact) which are developmentally consistent with the child's level of cognition and moral reasoning.     

Quality child care: what does it mean for individual infants, parents and caregivers?

It is argued that previous research on child care quality fits a “black box” model where individual characteristics and the experiences of children, parents and caregivers are largely ignored as factors influencing outcome. An individual model of quality child care is presented in which infant-caregiver, parent-caregiver and peer relationships are the central features of a model which considers the influence of pre-care differences and the effect of program characteristics and standards on the well-being of children, parents and caregivers.     

Rethinking “Harmonious Parenting” Using a Three-factor Discipline Model

Diana Baumrind's typology of parenting is based on a two-factor model of “control” and “warmth”. Her recommended discipline style, labeled “authoritative parenting”, was constructed by taking high scores on these two factors. A problem with authoritative parenting is that it does not allow for flexible and differentiated responses to discipline situations. It is argued that a simpler, and more adequate, approach would be to switch to a model of discipline with a third factor, labeled “tolerance”. Parents of the most socially competent children are adept at knowing when they have a problem and when they do not. An example of the latter would be when a child expresses negative affect while complying fully with a request. Baumrind's notion of authoritative parenting was a useful “dialectic”, demonstrating that control and warmth are independent and equally necessary behaviors, but it did not go far enough. Baumrind's category of harmonious parenting (high warmth, moderate control, high tolerance), which she sees as an anomaly, should be substituted for authoritative parenting as the preferred discipline pattern.     

Predictors of Paternal Versus Maternal Stress in Families of Children With Neural Tube Defects

This study examined the types of stress experienced by maternal and paternal caretakers of children with Neural Tube Defects (NTD) and examined child and family characteristics that correlated with stress. Participants were 71 two-parent families of a child with spina bifida. Parents completed the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form to measure types of stress. Additional measures were completed to investigate variables potentially related to reported stress. Fathers reported significantly higher levels of stress from “dysfunctional parent-child interaction.” Mothers' personal stress correlated with disability and medical characteristics of the child. Fathers reported more stress when the child had maladaptive behaviors and when experiencing fewer social supports and resources. Mothers and fathers coparenting a child with NTD have both common and unique stresses. It is important that both be included in parent support and education initiatives.     

Human capital development: A family objective

Human capital contributes to economic development just as does physical capital or natural resources. Human capital begins developing in the family. Human capital includes nutritional levels, life expectancy, skills, knowledge, abilities and attitudes. Human capital development contributes to the individual's future economic output. The generalization - “If you educate a mother you educate a family”; - is given supportive evidence from an analysis by T. Paul Schultz of research on measures which contribute to human capital. Schultz (1994) shows that “subsidizing schooling for females may be justified in terms of (1) efficiency (high individual private market returns); (2) social externalities (reduced child mortality and fertility; (3) intergenerational redistribution (better health and education of children and a slower growth in population; and (4) equity (an increase in the productive capability of poorer individuals relative to richer individuals.”

Thinking of human capital as an economic construct may prove useful for human service professionals because funding agencies may appreciate the objective, substantive, or measureable evidence that the concept presents when compared to more subjective evidence from the fields of education, human development, and family studies     

The Contextuality of Children's Communication Difficulties in Specialist Practice: A Sociological Account

This paper reports findings from fieldwork in situations that brought young children and child welfare practitioners together with the aim of diagnosing and treating children's communication difficulties. The findings suggest that communication difficulties tend to be treated as a property of the individual child rather than as an emergent, contextual property of interaction. The attention will be steered from clinical definitions of “impairment” and “disability” to dynamics of social interaction, where understandings of “good” and “normal” communication play a central role. The findings have implications for current recommendations for good practice, which derive from needs-led, rights-led and skills-led approaches.     

Togetherness — A Manifestation of Day Care Life

This article discusses togetherness in the day care centre. In what way and in which situations is togetherness expressed among children? “What is the impact of adults on the rise and development of togetherness?” Answers to these questions were sought by making use of observations carried out in a cooperative Nordic study of the quality of children's lives in Danish, Finnish and Swedish day care centres. The data were collected by observing five-year-old children during their daily activities in seven day care centres. Attention was paid to relations between the children and adults as well as to the objects — in the sense of contents and objectives of ongoing activities. What do individual children do and why do they do it? “What is the object of the educator and the whole group? In what ways do the children and the educators participate in joint activity?” In this article, only the objects of activities and the relations connected with the theme of togetherness are taken into consideration. The study describes how the general object of togetherness has to do with positive emotional relations. This poses an interesting question: How, do positive emotional relations and togetherness, in turn, contribute to children's development and learning? By means of this study, only some hypotheses can be made: togetherness might be an important factor in building a real community of learners, not only in the day care centre but perhaps also in other educational settings.     

Bullying: A preliminary investigation of its nature and the effects of social cognition

The nature of peer group bullying among 631 Australian primary school children in years 5, 6 and 7 was surveyed in STUDY ONE to further understand the nature and effects of bullying. Over 6% of the sample reported being bullied 1-2 days/ week and nearly 1/3 of the sample felt unsafe from bullying. For 16% of the children who are bullied the experience lasts six months or more. Approximately one quarter of the students felt that teachers did little to stop bullying while children gave as their reason for not helping a victim “it is none of my business” and “fear”. Bullying affected self perception with 65% feeling worse about themselves after the incident. In STUDY TWO 76 children were individually interviewed regarding their social problem solving capacities. Bullies, victims and “normals” differed in relation to their attribution for control for explanations of aggressive behaviour. Bullies were more “external” than victims or other children. Bullies chose more aggressive second best solutions to aggressive behaviour by other children than victims while victims feared retaliation for aggressive behaviour on their part. The findings were discussed in terms of social cognition.     

Characteristics of successful directors of for-profit child care centers

The need for quality child care is a national concern of increasing interest to parents, child care providers, employers, and policy-makers in the United States. One of the newest entries in child care options available for consumers is for-profit daycare chains. As for-profit chains increase in both number and size, they will receive increased research attention. Few studies have examined for-profit centers in general or the background characteristics of their directors specifically.

The purpose of this research was to develop a profile of directors of for-profit child care centers and to investigate whether certain background variables, such as level of education, differentiated “successful” from “unsuccessful” directors. Data were collected on 362 child care directors employed during a three-year period with a nation-wide daycare chain in the United States.     

Children's conceptions of their own play

This paper described a research project, Play and Learning, to investigate the mental processes that underlie children's activities in “free play” and “structured learning” situations in preschool. Interviews of children about “what they did” were used to investigate children's own views of play and learning.     

Resilient children: A longitudinal study of high achieving socially disadvantaged children

Current interest in “resilient” children -- those who are vulnerable to psycho-pathology yet achieve competence -- prompted a study of such children using data from the 1970 British birth cohort. The conceptual framework used to define a sample of “resilient” children within the cohort is described, and results from analyses designed to identify contextual, parenting and experiential factors which substantially increased the chance of resilience in vulnerable children are presented. Vulnerability was defined in terms of the family's socio-economic status when the child was 5, and a Competency Index, based on cognitive#sh educational attainment and behavioural adjustment at 10 years, determined which of the vulnerable group were “resilient”. The main finding was that having positive, supportive and interested parents was a major factor which enabled socially vulnerable children to achieve competence. Maternal depression -- a condition to which low SES mothers were at high risk -- substantially reduced the chance of resilience.     

Family life: the place of children's work around the house

Cultural groups vary considerably in their expectations of work around the house by children, and these variations provide a window for viewing ideas about the nature of children and of family life. This paper provides (a) a summary of differences found between two cultural groups in Australia (Australian-born and Lebanese-born), (b) a review of differences found within historical studies and within other cross-cultural comparisons, and (c) a report on approaches and concepts to children's work within a further Australian-born group (a report that considers views about money for work as well as some general underlying principles about work that can legitimately be asked of others and work that cannot). The important differences among cultures, it is argued, have to do not only with the expectations of work, but also with the way parents mark some jobs as different from others (e.g. “regular” vs. “extra”, boys' work or girls' work, can be pased on vs. cannot be), and with the way they use, as a sign of whether a child is acquiring the desired concepts of family life, the child's understanding of phrases such as “your job” and the child's recognition of the mother's work.     

Toddler-Caregiver Interaction: The Effect of Temperament

Research looking at the effects of child care often adopts a model assuming unidirectionality of influence from the caregiver to the child. Specific child characteristics may, however, affect caregiver response. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of toddler temperament on caregiver-toddler interaction in child care. Fifty-five toddlers (18-35 months), classified as being of extreme temperament, were videotaped in their child care centres. Child-caregiver interactions were coded by a rater “blind” to temperament category. Children classified as difficult attracted significantly more attention (not necessarily positive) from caregivers. Children with ratings of easy were more often overlooked. Whether a child was sociable or withdrawn made little difference to caregiver response. High centre quality predicted more positive and fewer negative interactions with individual children, particularly temperamentally vulnerable children. Temperament predicted caregiver response even after quality of centre and age of child had been taken into account. Results suggest high quality care may decrease temperamental vulnerability while poor quality care may exacerbate it.     

Indexes and boundaries for “quantitative significance” in statistical decisions

Boundaries for S, representing a “quantitatively significant” or “substantively impressive” distinction, have not been established, analogous to the boundary of , usually set at 0.05, for the stochastic or probabilistic component of “statistical significance”. To determine what boundaries are being used for the “quantitative” decisions, we reviewed pertinent articles in three general medical journals. For each contrast of two means, contrast of two rates, or correlation coefficient, we noted the investigators' decisions about stochastic significance, stated in P values or confidence intervals, and about quantitative significance, indicated by interpretive comments.

The boundaries between impressive and unimpressive distinctions were best formed by a ratio of 1.2 for the smaller to the larger mean in 546 comparisons, by a standardized increment of 0.28 and odds ratio of 2.2 in 392 comparisons of two rates; and by an r value of 0.32 in 154 correlation coefficients. Additional boundaries were also identified for “substantially” and “highly” significant quantitative distinctions.

Although the proposed boundaries should be kept flexible, indexes and boundaries for decisions about “quantitative significance” are particularly useful when a value of δ must be chosen for calculating sample size before the research is done, and when the “statistical significance” of completed research is appraised for its quantitative as well as stochastic components.     

Consumer characteristics, food related attitudes and consumption of meat and meat products

Consumer respondents (203) in the metro-Atlanta statistical area answered a detailed questionnaire pertaining to their attitudes and perceptions of different food groups and food uses. Factor analyses resulted in five food attitude, two food item and three food-use appropriateness factors. The food attitude factors were “Like to Cook”, “Organizational”, “Adventurous”, “Convenience driven” and “Nutrition conscious but casual meal planner”. Food item factors were “Main dish” and “Snack”, Food-use appropriateness factors were “Social”, “Satiety” and “Casual”. A significant correlation between nutrition knowledge and nutrition concern, but not food attitude scores, was found. The “Organizational” factor correlated with the most numbers of variables and “Like to Cook” the least. Results of the respondents in this study indicate that consumers in this sample are leading mobile, dynamic and service oriented lifestyles.     

Touch Among Children at Nursery School

Naturalistic observations of touching behaviors were conducted among 33 preschool children, ranging from 3 to 64 months of age. Touch was coded for direction (received/initiated), type, body area touched, responses to touch, and purpose. Infants received significantly more touch than older children. Preschool children engaged in touching behaviors similar to those observed among adults. Touch involved “vulnerable body parts” more often among toddlers than among preschoolers. 'Negative' responses to being touched occurred more often among toddlers than among preschoolers, and task-related touch occurred less often in the preschool than in the toddler and infant classes.     

Resilience and Young People Leaving Care

How do we promote the resilience of young people leaving care? This article explores this question by bringing together research findings on the resilience of young people from disadvantaged family backgrounds with research studies on young people leaving care. These findings are applied to young people during their journey to adulthood: their lives in care, their transitions from care, and their lives after care. It is suggested that three main groups of young people can be identified from leaving care research studies: young people “moving on”, “survivors” and “victims”. It is argued that promoting the resilience of young people leaving care will require more comprehensive services across their life course. This will include, first, better quality care, providing more stability, holistic preparation, a positive sense of identity and assistance with education; second, opportunities for more gradual transitions from care, less accelerated and compressed, and more akin to normative transitions; and third, the provision of better quality and more extended support.