Reasons for choosing child care: associations with family factors, quality, and satisfaction

Peyton, Vicki; Jacobs, Anne; O’Brien, Marion; Roy, Carolyn

doi:10.1016/s0885-2006(01)00098-9

Cited by 130 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Among other motives were friends and family recommendations (30 %) and cost (5 %). Other studies concluded that convenience factors are especially important for parents with lower family incomes (e.g., Early and Burchinal 2001;Peyton et al 2001), given their material constraints. Finally, as stated by Cryer et al (2002), requirements for the education and care of children in centers are different from requirements for the education and care of children at home (e.g., the supervision of a group of children in the childcare playground is more demanding than the supervision parents usually provide at home), which can cause parents and observers to assess differently the same reality, despite the use of the same indicators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality in Portuguese childcare classrooms

Barros

Leal²

2014

Eur J Psychol Educ

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The main goal of this study was to examine parents' and teachers' perceptions of quality in early childhood education for toddlers in Portugal. A total of 110 parents and 110 teachers participated in the study, rating the importance of specific quality criteria and assessing childcare classrooms, based on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale Parent Questionnaire (ITERS-RPQ) and on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale Teacher Questionnaire (ITERS-RTQ), respectively. The same quality items were used by external observers to evaluate the same classrooms with the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS-R; . Results suggest that parents and teachers give high importance scores to the quality criteria included in the ITERS-R, substantiating the use of this instrument in Portugal. Although correlations were found between observers' and parents' ratings of quality, and between observers' and teachers' ratings of quality, results suggest that teachers and parents consider education and care in toddler classrooms to be substantially more adequate than the researchers observed. KeywordsChildcare quality. Early childhood education . Parents' perceptions. Teachers' perceptions.Portugal Research has been showing the importance of quality of early childhood education (ECE) for children's short-term and long-term outcomes (e.g., Vandell et al. 2010). In Portugal, in the last decades, a public investment has been made in order to increase the coverage rate of childcare services for infants and toddlers, dependent on the Ministry of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security, and the coverage rate of preschools (children between 3 and 6 years old), dependent on the Ministry of Education (Abreu-Lima et al. 2013;Pinto et al. 2013). However, research projects on ECE services for infants and toddlers, and initiatives to improve their quality, are still necessary (Barros and Aguiar 2010). Furthermore, quality of ECE has been considered a relative concept (e.g., Dahlberg et al. 1999), differing from country to country and depending on individual and/or group priorities, expectations, values, beliefs, social perceptions, and culture (e.g., Dahlberg et al. 1999; European Commission Childcare Network 1990). In this context, Bairrão (1998) highlighted that quality is related to objective criteria (associated with physical, material, and social well-being) but also related to subjective aspects, such as representations people have about quality. Therefore, parents' and teachers' perceptions should be considered in research and policies, as they often differ from official priorities and objectives. Fifteen years ago, Katz (1998) argued that the concept of quality should be considered from several perspectives: (a) top-down perspective on quality, (b) bottom-up perspective, (c) outside-inside perspective, (d) inside perspective, and (e) outside perspective. The top-down approach is more prevalent in research, consisting in identifying features of the program related to licensing guidelines and including aspects s...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality in Portuguese childcare classrooms

Barros

Leal²

2014

Eur J Psychol Educ

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“…Previous research focused on parental satisfaction with their child care arrangements (Britner & Phillips, 1995;Erdwins, Casper, & Buffardi, 1998;Peyton et al, 2001;Sonenstein & Wolf, 1990); in varied infant and toddler programs in the UK (Leach et al, 2008) ; satisfaction with experiences of varied aspects of children's early education programs (Fantuzzo, Perry, & Childs, 2006); and child care and early education in rural families (Teleki & Buck-Gomez, 2002).…”

Section: Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ perspectives on child care quality and satisfaction in Taiwan

Jang¹,

Moore²,

Lin³

2014

IJRSE

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Parents are important stakeholders when demanding quality child care services, and it is necessary to take parents' perspectives on child care quality seriously. The purpose of this study was to investigate Taiwanese parents' perceptions regarding the importance of quality, and satisfaction with preschools based on participants' demographic characteristics, child's ages, and types of schools. Convenience sampling was utilized in this study. Data were collected from 810 participants with at least one three-to five-year-old child enrolled in one of 20 preschools in Taiwan. The instrument identified parental perceptions of quality and satisfaction with child care programs were categorized into seven domains: Program Characteristics, Teacher Characteristics, Interactions, Curriculum, Safety and Health, Physical Environment, and Evaluation. Health and safety issues tended to be more important in determining parental ratings for quality and satisfaction when children were enrolled preschool programs. There were no significant differences on parental ratings of the importance of quality among parental demographic characteristics and child's ages, and only significant difference by children's types of schools. Overall, results showed parents were satisfied with their current preschool programs. The findings have implications for parents, practitioners, and policy makers; for example, parents' education; Parent-Teacher partnerships; and effective communication for teacher-parent interactions. Recommendations for future research were addressed.

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“…A third view on mothers' decision-making comes from two US studies focusing on mothers' selection of care for their children, rather than on their employment decisions (Pungello and Kurtz-Costes, 2000;Peyton et al, 2001). These studies found that external constraints affected the extent to which mothers' personal attitudes influenced their childcare choices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choice and the Relationship between Identities and Behaviour for Mothers with Pre-School Children: Some Implications for Policy from a UK Study

2004

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This article reports on the findings and policy implications of a UK study that used both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate mothers' decision-making with respect to the interlinked issues of the care of their pre-school children and their own employment. Mothers were found to have both internal and external constraints on their decisions. In the three areas of finances, childcare and working time, both personal identities and external circumstances limited mothers' choices. However, neither external circumstances nor identities were fixed. Behaviour and identities were therefore adjusted to each other, giving rise to feedback effects at both the individual and the social level.While the constraints of identity limit the direct effectiveness of some policies, the longterm effectiveness of others may be enhanced by positive feedback arising from attitudes changing along with behaviour. A 'policy multiplier' is defined as the ratio of such indirect to direct effects. This is likely to be greater for enabling policies that lift existing constraints and enable choices that were previously not available, than for coercive policies that impose new constraints on behaviour. The article examines the implications of such feedback effects for developing policy that expands the choices available to mothers in the short term, reduces the costs of motherhood, and meets the government's long-term objectives of reducing child poverty and increasing employment.

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Reasons for choosing child care: associations with family factors, quality, and satisfaction

Cited by 130 publications

References 25 publications

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality in Portuguese childcare classrooms

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality in Portuguese childcare classrooms

Parents’ perspectives on child care quality and satisfaction in Taiwan

Choice and the Relationship between Identities and Behaviour for Mothers with Pre-School Children: Some Implications for Policy from a UK Study

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