Research Findings: The present study examined site and provider characteristics that may be associated with use of exclusionary discipline in center- and home-based childcare sites (N = 320). Higher numbers of suspensions and expulsions occurred at center-based sites and at sites with greater percentages of children of color. Furthermore, sites…

Research Findings: A total of 4102 childcare center teachers were recruited to examine a moderated mediation model of the relationship between teachers' adaptive caregiving beliefs and professional competence, using caregiving sensitivity as a mediator and organizational support as a moderator. Results indicated that (1) childcare center teachers'…

The current study assessed (1) the importance of six caregiver interactions skills (sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions) as rated by several stakeholders, (2) the quality of caregiver interactive skills, and (3) the…

Research Findings: Measuring toddlers' cortisol levels both in childcare and at home and their relation to child- and childcare-related factors may help to identify stress-inducing childcare practices and children who are more vulnerable to stress in childcare. Accordingly, toddlers' (n = 320, 51.2% female, mean age = 26.8 months) cortisol levels…

Research Findings: Measures of home child care (HCC) quality are limited and tend to be labor intensive. This article presents the measure development process as well as psychometric, construct, convergent and discriminant validity analyses for the HCC version of the Assessment for Quality Improvement (HCC-AQI) measure. The HCC-AQI is part of a…

Research Findings: The Quality of Care for Infants and Toddlers (QCIT) observational measure was designed to address the need for a valid and reliable measure of the quality of caregiver-child interactions that could be used in both center-based and family child care (FCC) settings, and with diverse populations. Results from a psychometric field…

Research Findings: This study provides a framework for categorizing one subset of the large and heterogeneous group of home-based child care providers, unlisted paid providers. We analyzed data on unlisted paid home-based child care providers (n = 448) from the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education conducted in the United States. We…

Recent studies suggest that mind-mindedness is an important element of caregiver-child interactions in family and childcare context. This study investigated caregivers' mind-mindedness in a nationally representative Dutch sample and its relation with structural quality factors (i.e., group size, caregivers' education and work experience, group…

Research Findings: Childcare provider stress and job satisfaction has been found to influence childcare quality in high-income contexts, but this phenomenon has yet to be studied in a low- or middle-income country. In 2019-2020, we tested the reliability and validity of the Child Care Center Work Environment Scale (CCCWES) with 416 childcare…

Research Findings: This study examines the frequency of reasoning talk used by 56 educators during their naturally occurring play interactions with infants in their early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers. Using Hasan's semantic framework, reasons were coded as social (based on social rules) or logical (based on rules of nature). The…

Turnover of child care staff is associated with lower care quality and compromised children's development. While turnover rates in the child care sector have steadily been high, the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the global staffing crisis. This article therefore aims to explore the correlates and reasons for turnover intention, turnover, and…

Research Findings: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education system faced unprecedented challenges, including global school closures, the cancellation of face-to-face teaching, and ultimately school step-wise or partial reopening. Childcare providers have faced additional significant stressors from the beginning of the outbreak. The present…

"Research Findings:" This study examined how family socioeconomic status and home environment may help explain the indirect relationship between parental migration status and rural Chinese children's holistic development. A total of 198 preschool-age children and their primary caregivers were recruited from three rural preschools in…

This study aims to validate a Korean version of the Brief Version of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP-K) for use with childcare providers in South Korea. By employing a stratified sampling method, 808 childcare providers in charge of infants' classes were selected for participation. Participants completed a questionnaire that included…

Research Findings: This qualitative study explored the process through which a small group of preservice early childhood teachers engaged in primary caregiving as a framework for learning about early care and education with infants during an infant practicum course at a university-affiliated early childhood center in the United States. Based on…