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Elicker, J., Fortner-Wood, C., & Noppe, I. C. (1999). The context of infant attachment in family child care. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 20(2), 319-336.
The relationship between family child care providers and infants in their care was studied. Findings showed attachment security between the provider and the infant was related to interactive involvement, family socioeconomic status, and child care quality.
The Study
- There is a significant body of research on attachment between mothers and infants. Less is known about the relationship of infants with their child care providers.
- The goals of this study were to:
- Assess the reliability and validity of the Attachment Q-Sort. This is a tool that measures attachment security in family child care.
- Identify variables in family child care that may facilitate attachment between infants and child care providers.
- Family child care is the most common form of out-of-home care for children while their parents work. However, there is little research on this method of child care. Research indicates that many family child care providers are either unwilling or unable to participate in research studies.
The Methods
- The sample included 41 infants (aged 10-21 months) and their primary at-home caregivers (mostly mothers) as well as 23 family child care providers. The sample was drawn from an eight county urban and rural area in the Midwest.
- The initial sort included over 300 family child care providers. Reasons for non-participation included no infants in care, not wanting researchers in their homes, or parents unwilling to participate.
- Data were collected during four observational visits for each child. One visit occurred in the child’s home and the other three were at the family child care provider’s residence.
The Findings
- The Attachment Q-Sort exhibited reliability and validity across each individual assessment.
- Research indicated that taken together group size in care, age of entry into care, months with caregiver, and number of work hours of caregiver had a stronger association with child-caregiver interactive involvement than did any variable alone.
- Findings showed inconsistencies between parents and caregivers perceptions of a child’s temperament and their own relationship with each other.
R2P Evaluation
This study featured a unique example of instrument validation in family child care. The inconsistencies between caregivers and parents should be examined further.
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