ArticleCaregiver-mother partnership behavior and the quality of caregiver-child and mother-child interactions☆
Section snippets
Participants
Participants in the study were 53 mothers and their children’s 53 primary child-care providers when the children were 3 years old. The families were participants in the Wisconsin site of the multisite NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Only the families from the Wisconsin site were included in the present report because the measure of parent-caregiver partnership behavior was administered only to participants at this site in the larger NICHD Study.1 Families in the present study were restricted
Preliminary analyses
On average, most mothers and caregivers reported frequent seeking and sharing of information about the child and the child’s experiences with each other. To examine differences in maternal and caregiver Partnership Behavior and the relation of partnership behavior to type of child care (center-based vs. less formal care), a 2 × 2 repeated measure multivariate ANOVA was run with partnership behavior as a within-subjects measure (caregiver Partnership Behavior and maternal Partnership Behavior)
Discussion
The hypothesized relation between partnership behavior of mothers and their child-care providers and more positive caregiver-child interaction was supported in the present study. When mother and caregiver reported more frequent communication with each other about the child and the child’s experiences, by seeking and sharing information about the child, the caregiver’s interactions with the child were observed to be more sensitive, supportive, and stimulating, indicative of higher quality
Conclusion and implications
In summary, the importance of supportive linkages between children’s home and child-care experiences was demonstrated in finding positive associations with the quality of interactions with the child in child care and in the home. The present study thus adds support to the current professional emphasis on communication between parent and caregiver as a feature of high quality child-care programs. It indicates that the child’s quality of experience in each environment may be enhanced when parent
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2020, Children and Youth Services ReviewCitation Excerpt :When parents do participate in school events, they may be less likely to observe math-related activities, especially in poor or mediocre quality classrooms which are prevalent in the U.S. (Ewen & Herzfeldt-Kamprath, 2016). Researchers and practitioners frequently view family-teacher connections and parent-teacher relationships as a part of ECE classroom quality when examining children’s development and learning (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Owen, Ware, & Barfoot, 2000; Zellman & Perlman, 2006). It is possible that frequent parent-teacher communication and a strong relationship between the two, both of which are associated with classroom quality, may also support children’s early math skills (Anders et al., 2012).
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2018, Children and Youth Services ReviewCitation Excerpt :In addition, FCCPs may be aware of each child's needs better when they know a family better through frequent communication. This finding was consistent with previous literature such that greater communication and partnership with families are related to caregivers' positive interactions with children in care (Morrissey & Banghart, 2007; Owen et al., 2000). Having bonds with families and receiving respect from families may help caregivers see themselves as capable and competent professionals in caring for children, which can increase the use of positive responsiveness strategies.
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2020, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :Moreover, parent–teacher communication is impactful on children's functioning in early childhood. For example, in a 2000 study, Owen, Ware, and Barfoot found that partnering and communication between parents and caregivers was positively linked to caregivers’ and parents’ observed interactions with children above and beyond their beliefs about child rearing, with parents and caregivers who reported more communication with each other being more sensitive and attuned to children's needs. Additional work by Mendez (2010) found a significant, positive correlation between the quality of the parent–teacher interaction and children's school readiness skills.
The developmental landscape of early parent-focused language intervention
2020, Early Childhood Research QuarterlyCitation Excerpt :Considering the environment as a multi-layered system draws attention to relatively less-explored aspects of the distal environment, including the demands of parents’ employment on proximal experiences that affect language acquisition (Odom, Vernon-Feagans, & Crouter, 2013). It also helps highlight the relations among the child’s different relationships, including how parenting is affected by a child’s childcare experiences (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999) and how the child’s interactions with both the parent and the child’s childcare provider are enhanced when the parent and care provider share information about the child (Owen, Ware, & Barfoot, 2000). Moreover, when we expand the ecological system to include biological substratum (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), we gain a fuller appreciation of the interrelationships among layers of the environment, revealing links between environmental and biological variables.
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The research reported here was supported by a subcontract with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, through a cooperative agreement (U10) with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. We wish to express our appreciation to Deborah Lowe Vandell who directed the Wisconsin site of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, to Anne Stright who supervised data collection, to the research assistants who collected the data, and especially to the families and child-care providers who welcomed us into their homes and workplaces.