The relation of flexible child care to quality of center day care and children’s socio-emotional functioning: A survey and observational study

Abstract

In two studies in daycare centers, we investigated a newly developed index for flexible child care describing parents' use of evening care and flexible attendance scheduling for their child. We examined the relation between this index together with stability in care, mother's stress and the child's temperament on the one hand, and quality of caregivers' behavior and a child's socio-emotional functioning in day care on the other. In Study I, the mothers and caregivers of 186 children (aged 6-30 months) participated in a survey. In Study II, approximately 18 months later, 52 children from Study I were observed in their daycare setting. Children showed more well-being in day care when they had few parallel care arrangements, and when there was more daily stability in staffing and grouping patterns. Unexpectedly, caregivers in groups with more stability in staffing and grouping patterns, showed less positive caregiving behavior. When staff turnover rate was higher, positive caregiving behavior was lower. Finally, children in more flexible child care showed more non-compliance. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.Keywords: Day care; Flexible child care; Non-standard hours child care; Stability in care; Socio-emotional functioning; Quality of careIn recent years, parents using the services of center day care have urged child care centers to extend their child care facilities, i.e., to make them more "flexible," in order to enable the parents to optimally combine work and family demands. Parents nowadays frequently work for organizations that operate early mornings, evenings, nights and weekends as well as

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Child Care on Problem Behaviors in a Dutch Sample of Twins

“…Another possible explanation could be the differences in types of care arrangements, or differences in the stability of the child care. Both aspects of child care have been associated with increased levels of behavior problems (Bacharach & Baumeister, 2003;De Schipper et al, 2003;Youngblade, 2003;). As shown in Table 1, both type and stability differed among the various quantity groups.…”

“…It appeared that the low quality had negative effects on the security attachment relations of the children. Several other studies cite the instability of child care and number of child care arrangements as risk factors for increased behavior problems (Bacharach & Baumeister, 2003;De Schipper et al, 2003;Youngblade, 2003). Thus, it seems that there is a relation between early child care and problem behaviors, but it remains unclear whether quantity of child care, quality, type, stability, or number of arrangements account for the findings.…”

Young children in day and night care: negotiating and constructing belonging during daily arrivals

“…For children, however, day and night care may mean a less stable daily life. This notion is based on a study by De Schipper, Tavecchio, Van IJzendoorn and Linting (2003) on so called flexible child care, where flexible refers to families' schedules. In this study, more flexible child care was found to be associated with less daily stability in the structure of a child's program and his or her contacts with caregivers and peers.…”

“…In this study, more flexible child care was found to be associated with less daily stability in the structure of a child's program and his or her contacts with caregivers and peers. Furthermore, the daily stability of care mattered for the well-being of 6-to 39-month-old children in day care, as an increase in the variety and number of caregivers and peers was associated with less well-being (De Schipper et al, 2003). Although no direct association was found between flexible child care and child wellbeing, these results point to the potential challenge to young children's wellbeing posed by the varying and multiple social contacts characteristic of flexible child care arrangements.…”

The Effects of Alexithymia, Burnout-, and Adult Attachment on Child Disciplinary Style of Childcare Teachers

“…교사가 훈육방식을 결정하는 과정에서 교사의 정서적․심 리적 특성 또한 매우 큰 작용을 하는 요소로 지목된다 (Scarr, 1988;Schipper et al, 2003). 기관 내에서 개인이 실제로 자신 이 느낀 정서를 외현적으로 나타낼 때는 적절한 정서적 표현 능력이 필요하다.…”