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Bordin, J., Machida, S., & Varnell, H. (2000). The relation of quality indicators to provider knowledge of child development in family child care homes. Child & Youth Care Forum, 29(5), 323-341.
The authors explored several issues of quality of care in family child care homes. Variables examined included the relationship between structural and process indicators and provider knowledge of child development and health care practices.
The Study
- There are several levels of quality that can be measured in family child care:
- Structural - training, education, group size, and
- Process - responses to developmental and behavioral attentiveness.
- Regulations are often only related to structural indicators. However, research shows that process indicators are crucial to child development.
- A review of the literature found that quality in licensed family child care provider homes was often much higher than in unlicensed homes. Other research has found that years of experience had no relationship with quality of care. However, there is a positive relationship between education in child care and quality of care.
- The authors of this study wanted to find out if there was a relationship between structural and process indicators. Would one influence the other?
The Methods
- Thirty-one providers in four poorer Northern California counties participated in the study. Over 80% of the providers were white and the rest were of Hispanic descent. Almost 90% were licensed homes and experience ranged from just under one year to 13 years, with an average of 4.6 years.
- Two observations were made at each participant’s home over a two-month period.
The Findings
- Overall, providers were rated Adequate on the Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS) with lower scores on the Social subscale and higher scores on the Learning subscale. The Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment Scale (HOME) indicated that most providers showed consistent stimulation for learning.
- Other measures showed adequate knowledge of infant development but less so on knowledge of child health care practices.
- Those providers that had training in family child care tended to have higher process quality scores, fewer negative interactions with children, and more awareness of health and safety issues when compared to untrained providers.
- Overall, training not licensure was more significantly related to better quality care.
R2P Evaluation
The findings imply that there is benefit in including process indicators in regulations.
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