Influence of structural features on Portuguese toddler child care quality

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.02.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Whereas child care quality has been extensively studied in the U.S., there is much less information about the quality of child care in other countries. With one of the highest maternal employment rates in Europe, it is important to examine child care in Portugal. Thirty toddler classrooms in child care centers were observed. The purpose of this study was to determine whether structural features account for overall toddler child care quality. Results showed younger and better-paid teachers provided better toddler child care quality. Space available per child was not a statistically significant predictor of toddler child care quality. Overall quality results suggest some issues to be addressed by early education policy makers and indicate the need to promote quality in Portuguese toddler child care programs.

Section snippets

Participants

Thirty toddler child care classrooms from 15 private child care centers in the Metropolitan Area of Porto participated in this study. In the north of the country, Porto is the second largest city in Portugal: its Metropolitan Area has approximately 1,200,000 inhabitants (Instituto Nacional de Estatística, 2003).

Of the 15 participating centers, 11 were nonprofit and four were for-profit. Centers were randomly selected from a list provided by regional welfare services (which included a population

Results

Descriptive analysis examined the correlations between overall process quality (i.e., the overall ITERS score) and structural variables of conceptual interest (see Table 2). We found moderate statistically significant correlations between overall child care quality and teacher's salary (positive association) and teacher's age (negative association). Small nonsignificant correlations were found between child care quality and the following structural characteristics: space available per child

Discussion

Toddlers in the Metropolitan Area of Porto attend child care classrooms that, on average, do not have the basic health and safety requirements and do not provide the necessary materials to answer children’ developmental needs (for example, there are insufficient pretend play materials with few themes available; pictures and mobiles are insufficient, and usually displayed at adult eye level; few soft toys, etc.). In these classrooms, the care provided is inadequate and the quality of environment

Acknowledgements

This study is part of a research project titled The quality of child interactions in family and day care settings and its influence on children's socio-cognitive development developed by the Department of Psychology of the University of Porto and was supported by grants from the Foundation of Science and Technology (POCTI/PSI/35207/2000). The second author was supported by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (BD/8317/2002). Cecília Aguiar is now at UIPCDE, ISPA.

References (37)

  • D.M. Blau

    The production of quality in child-care centers: Another look

    Applied Developmental Science

    (2000)
  • J. Cohen

    Quantitative methods in psychology: A power primer

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1992)
  • Cost, Quality, Child Outcomes Study Team

    Cost, quality, and child outcomes in child care centers public report

    (1995)
  • European Child Care and Education (ECCE) Study Group. (1997a). European Child Care and Education: Cross national...
  • European Child Care and Education (ECCE) Study Group. (1997b). Questionário de avaliação das características...
  • T. Harms et al.

    The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS)

    (1980)
  • T. Harms et al.

    Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised

    (1998)
  • T. Harms et al.

    Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center

    (1990)
  • Cited by (41)

    • Interactive effects of kindergarten organizational resources on classroom quality in an era of universalizing ECE in China

      2020, International Journal of Educational Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      First, the previous studies focused mostly on economic (tuition fee, governmental funding, teacher salary) and human resources (teaching experiences, teacher qualification, turnover rate, teacher training), whereas less on the social resource that supports teachers' teaching practice. Second, the previous studies have not yet paid enough attention to the interactive effects of kindergarten organizational resources on program quality (Pessanha, Aguiar, & Bairrão, 2007; Phillipsen et al., 1997). Therefore, there is still a need to study the effectiveness and mechanism of kindergarten resources for improving classroom quality.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text