Quality Child Care: At Whose Expense?

Quality child care is related to the number of adequately prepared practitioners who are available to children on a long-term basis. Unfortunately, child care practitioners subsidize the true cost of quality child care by working for substandard wages, few benefits, and little recognition of their true worth. The need for adequate compensation for qualified caregivers is the most critical issue facing the profession, because adequate compensation enables trained and educated caregivers to remain in the field, invest in professional development, and it also attracts new students into the field. The true cost of quality should be shared by all members of society, for everyone benefits from investing in the citizens of the future.     

A Study of the Relationship Between Child Care Providers' Use of HIV/AIDS Information Sources, Knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and Attitudes Toward Caregiving Policies

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), has been a part of American society for over two decades. Today, HIV/AIDS touches all demographic groups, including young children. It is for this reason that child care providers need to be informed about HIV/AIDS and related policies that impact their work with young children. The purpose of this study was to examine child care providers' use of different HIV/AIDS information sources in relationship to their knowledge about HIV/AIDS and their response to common childhood behaviors and classroom situations involving an HIV-infected child. Results suggest that different types of information sources are associated with different aspects of providers' knowledge about and response to pediatric HIV/AIDS. Implications for the planning and delivery of HIV/AID training involving child care providers are discussed.     

Medical neglect of a child: challenges for pediatricians in developing countries

OBJECTIVE: To conceptualize the underlying causes of the medical neglect of children in a developing country and to provide suggestions for the management of neglect by pediatricians. METHODS: A case history of a 4-year-old boy from Turkey with neglect of the required treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia is used to examine the causes and management of medical neglect. Results: Although epidemiological studies on child neglect are lacking, this case exemplifies how in DEVELOPING countries, reasons for neglect or non-compliance with medical recommendations and the roles and actions taken by the health care and the social service systems may differ from western populations. Common to both western and developing countries, the characteristics of the child, family, and society may be reasons for medical neglect. However, cultural fatalistic beliefs profoundly present in the developing world may also contribute to the medical neglect of a child. Identification of the neglect, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary assessment emphasizing the strengths within the family and the society, and the determination of the pediatric team to act in the best interest of the child may result in resolution of the neglect even in circumstances where resources within systems are not sufficient. CONCLUSIONS: In developing countries, increased emphasis on child neglect, its prompt recognition and management within the pediatric profession as well as at a health care and social service system levels are needed to address this prevalent and potentially fatal child health problem.     

Child abuse in Nigeria

Although child abuse occurs in Nigeria, it has received little attention. This is probably due to the emphasis placed on the more prevalent childhood problems of malnutrition and infection. Another possible reason is the general assumption that in every African society the extended family system always provides love, care and protection to all children. Yet there are traditional child rearing practices which adversely affect some children, such as purposeful neglect or abandonment of severely handicapped children, and twins or triplets in some rural areas. With the alteration of society by rapid socioeconomic and political changes, various forms of child abuse have been identified, particularly in the urban areas. These may be considered the outcome of abnormal interactions of the child, parents/ guardians and society. They include abandonment of normal infants by unmarried or very poor mothers in cities, increased child labour and exploitation of children from rural areas in urban elite families, and abuse of children in urban nuclear families by childminders . Preventive measures include provision of infrastructural facilities and employment opportunities in the rural areas in order to prevent drift of the young population to the cities. This would sustain the supportive role of the extended family system which is rapidly being eroded. There is need for more effective legal protection for the handicapped child, and greater awareness of the existence of child abuse in the community by health and social workers.     

Family patterns and child abuse in a nationally representative American sample

Data on 1, 146 families with a child age 3 through 17 at home are presented. Child abuse information was obtained for a randomly selected child in each family. Child abuse was defined as an attack by a parent involving punching, kicking, biting, hitting with an object, “beating up,” or using a knife or gun. Over 14 out of every 100 American children 3–17 are subjected to abusive violence each year. These figures are at least 26 times greater than those of the National Center For Child Abuse and Neglect. Even so, for reasons outlined in the paper, they are underestimates. Families in which child abuse occurred are compared with other families. The results suggest that child abuse is brought about by the very nature of the society and its family system. This has profound implications for the prevention and treatment of child abuse. Although psychotherapy may be appropriate in some cases, a more fundamental approach lies in such things as a more equal sharing of the burdens of child care, replacement of physical punishment with non-violent methods of child care and training, eliminating the stresses and insecurity which now characterize our economic system, and strengthening the ties of individual families to the extended family and the community.     

Transition to School: Developmental Trajectories and School Experiences

Because of the premium now placed on a formal education as well as the changing demographics of American society, school failure is now more costly than ever. Given that academic difficulties experienced by children are traceable to problems in underachievement that begin during the first years of early schooling, a thorough understanding of the transition-to-school process is needed. We suggest two principal assumptions in examining this transition-to-kindergarten period. First, multiple risk factors associated with certain child, family, and child care characteristics are expected to predict early school experience, both in and out of the classroom, and, thereby, social and academic success and failure in the early school years. Secondly, it is expected that day-to-day experiences in the classroom and on the playground will exacerbate or mitigate risk, resulting in some children performing better than would otherwise be expected and others functioning worse than anticipated. Thus, a critically important problem involves the identification of child, family, child care, and schooling factors and processes which account for risk being realized or not realized with regard to subsequent academic and school performance.     

Transition to School: Developmental Trajectories and School Experiences

Because of the premium now placed on a formal education as well as the changing demographics of American society, school failure is now more costly than ever. Given that academic difficulties experienced by children are traceable to problems in underachievement that begin during the first years of early schooling, a thorough understanding of the transition-to-school process is needed. We suggest two principal assumptions in examining this transition-to-kindergarten period. First, multiple risk factors associated with certain child, family, and child care characteristics are expected to predict early school experience, both in and out of the classroom, and, thereby, social and academic success and failure in the early school years. Secondly, it is expected that day-to-day experiences in the classroom and on the playground will exacerbate or mitigate risk, resulting in some children performing better than would otherwise be expected and others functioning worse than anticipated. Thus, a critically important problem involves the identification of child, family, child care, and schooling factors and processes which account for risk being realized or not realized with regard to subsequent academic and school performance.     

也论养成教育

养成教育就是按照素质教育的要求,培养孩子健全的人格,教孩子学会做人。要想使养成教育取得良好的教育效果,必须加强学校、社会、家庭三位一体的教育网络建设,让各种教育途径均发挥最佳功能,最终达到全社会都关心未成年人成长,关心其良好习惯的养成的全员育人目的。     

Family selection and child care experiences: implications for studies of child outcomes

Studies of the impact of child care experiences on child outcomes must consider family selection factors because children from more advantaged families tend to attend higher quality child care and are more likely to be in center care than children from less advantaged families. Although this issue is widely recognized, developmentalists and economists have used different statistical methods when testing whether child care experiences are related to child outcomes and have drawn different conclusions from their analyses. This paper discusses some of the family selection issues that should be considered in child care research and provides empirical evidence demonstrating why each issue should be considered. These issues include whether causal inferences can be made from observational studies and the impact on conclusions from regression analyses that include highly correlated measures of child care experiences, nonrepresentative samples, and family covariates with bi-directional effects on child care quality.     

儿童学专业教育模式探究:教育研究育儿援助一体化的“儿童研究中心”之建设——访日本东大阪大学副校长、儿童研究中心主任吉冈真知子教授

东大阪大学是日本最早开设儿童学专业的大学。该大学以"儿童研究中心"的基本设施为平台,探究了教育研究育儿援助三位一体化的教育模式,这种教育模式不仅为儿童学专业的学生提供了观察实习的学习机会;而且以育儿援助的方式介入社会,在为社区社会作出贡献的同时,也提供了学生相关实践的机会;并在这些活动中展开研究,深化专业教育与社会实践的理论。     

幼儿钢琴教学中应注意的问题

随着社会的不断发展,幼儿教育显得越来越重要,作为其中一支的幼儿钢琴教育,能充分发挥音乐教育的特有功能。在幼儿的钢琴教育中,教师扮演着举足轻重的作用,教师应该针对幼儿特殊的生理心理特点,不断丰富和改进教学方法和手段,同时注重家长的配合作用,从而促进幼儿身心的全面发展。     

Four Perspectives on Child Care Quality

National and state child care policies are shaped in part by studies of child care quality. The majority of these studies focus on variables that influence child outcomes. Katz suggests that this is but one of four perspectives on child care quality, and that parents, children, and child care staff have perspectives on child care quality that have not been adequately addressed. This article reviews the variables, measures, and studies associated with each of these four perspectives. The authors argue that given the preponderance of studies conducted from the professional/researcher perspective, more effort should be directed to studying child care quality from parents' children's, and child care staff members' viewpoints.     

儿童视角下的人文关照——读亚米契斯的《爱的教育》

《爱的教育》这部小说巧妙地借用儿童视角的叙述策略呈现了父子之爱、师生之爱、同学之爱等人间真情,并由此上升为对社会、对国家的深沉的大爱。这反映了他渴望通过教育拯救社会和对人性真善美的追求。他独特的人文关照不仅在当时,在今天也是具有深刻的现实价值的。     

Pedagogic imaginings: negotiating pedagogies of care/protection in a risk society

Child care and protection have become key issues of concern for all teachers, and particularly for those teachers responsible for the care of young children. In this paper, we analyse focus group data on the topic of child care and protection produced by primary school teachers in Queensland, Australia. By drawing on concepts from cultural globalization, risk society and the sociology of childhood we outline the images, imaginary worlds and imagined professional identities constructed by a cohort of teachers. In particular, we pay attention to teachers' accounts of changes to everyday schooling practices in the context of new child protection legislation and policies. We argue that education and/or professional development in relation to child care/protection must involve critical engagement and contestation of the images, imaginary worlds and imagined collective professional identities of teachers and children constructed, and consumed often uncritically in these new times.     

Where Child Care is Above Average? Licensing, Legislation, and Indicators of Quality of Care in Minnesota

Despite Minnesota's reputation for quality child care, recent changes in legislation and the impact of changing needs have raised concerns about the quality of child care available in the state. This paper presents an overview of Minnesota's current child care system including structural indicators of program quality such as licensing standards, staff wages, turnover, educational level, and program accreditation. The current situation is characterized by high levels of staff turnover, low wages, low levels of program accreditation, and increasing numbers of variances for child care licenses, all of which are disadvantageous to providing high quality child care to Minnesota's children. Efforts to decrease turnover through higher salaries and increase staff educational levels through tuition vouchers are explored. We find that there are a number of ways in which states can support quality child care, but stricter licensing standards are not likely to be sufficient by themselves.     

An exploratory study of the impacts of an employer-supported child care program

Although employer-sponsored child care programs have become more common, there is little empirical research on whether these programs affect employees’ satisfaction with child care or their work-life balance, and if effects vary across employee characteristics. In this exploratory study, we administered a survey to employees with children at one large university to gather information on their child care arrangements and experience with their employer's child care voucher program (N = 776). Satisfaction with child care varied with employee and child care characteristics, but not with voucher receipt. Families with preschool children, White families, and those using paid home-based care were more satisfied with their child care arrangements than those with school-age children, minority families, and those using center-based or before/afterschool care. Nearly half of voucher recipients (47%) reported benefits in work-life balance as a result of the voucher. Although demand-side vouchers appear to be a promising employer approach to address child care challenges, these results suggest that attention must also be given to the structure of child care supply as satisfaction and work-family stress are affected by more factors than child care cost only.     

Multiple child care arrangements and child well being: Early care experiences in Australia

Nearly one quarter of Australian children under the age of 5 experience multiple non-parental child care arrangements. Research focused on the relationship between multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional development is limited, particularly in Australia. Evidence from the United States and Europe has linked multiple child care arrangements to increases in children's problem behaviors (0065 and 0155), but there is little corresponding evidence on Australian children's child care experiences. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, we examined the associations between concurrent multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional and behavioral development at age 4.5. We found suggestive evidence that child care multiplicity at age 4.5 is related to higher levels of behavior problems. However, this relationship is moderated by prior child care experiences. We found that prior care multiplicity mitigates the relationship between concurrent multiplicity and children's prosocial skills and conduct problems. In contrast, moving from a single arrangement or no non-parental child care to multiple arrangements appears to be negatively associated with children's concurrent socioemotional skills. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Child care subsidies and child development

Child care subsidies are an important part of federal and state efforts to move welfare recipients into employment. One of the criticisms of the current subsidy system, however, is that it overemphasizes work and does little to encourage parents to purchase high-quality child care. Consequently, there are reasons to be concerned about the implications of child care subsidies for child development. In this paper, we provide a systematic assessment of the association between subsidy receipt and a wide range of child outcomes. Drawing on rich data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we document a negative relationship between child care subsidies and child development. In particular, our results suggest that subsidy receipt in the year before kindergarten is associated with lower reading and math test scores and greater behavior problems at kindergarten entry. Some of these negative effects persist until the end of kindergarten. A potential explanation for the poorer outcomes is that subsidized children are more likely to receive intense exposure to low-quality child care.     

Who's minding the kids? Experimental evidence on the demand for child care quality

Despite the well-documented benefits of high-quality child care, many preschool-age children in the U.S. attend low-quality programs. Accordingly, improving the quality of child care is increasingly an explicit goal of government policy. However, accomplishing this goal requires a thorough understanding of the factors that influence parents’ child care decisions. This paper provides the first evidence on the demand for child care characteristics in the market for home-based care. Using a randomized audit design, we study three dimensions of caregiving: affordability (i.e., the hourly price of child care), quality (i.e., caregiver education and experience), and convenience (i.e., caregiver car ownership and availability). We find that while parents are extremely sensitive to the cost of child care, they also have strong preferences for quality, particularly caregivers’ educational attainment. Furthermore, we obtain mixed results on the convenience dimensions of child care, with parents valuing those owning a car but not those with more availability. Finally, we find significant heterogeneity in child care preferences according to families’ age of youngest child, race and ethnicity, and willingness-to-pay. Our findings are consistent with the notion that the problem of low-quality in the U.S. child care market may be explained by lack of affordability or the informational resources to identify high-quality care, rather than an undervaluation of such care by parents.     

Financing medically-oriented child protection teams in the age of managed health care: a national survey

OBJECTIVE: The direct and indirect costs to society from child maltreatment are estimated to be quite high. The costs related to medical care are of interest to professionals serving on medically-oriented child protection teams that conduct medical evaluations of alleged abuse. This study was designed to explore a number of financially related issues on medically-oriented child protection teams specifically examining the team's staffing, funding sources, reimbursement, budgeting, perceived impact of managed health care and their perception of funding stability. METHOD: Mailed survey of medically-oriented child protection teams throughout the United States using a questionnaire that contained 28 items focused on a variety of financial issues; 14 items were drawn from a similar study done 6 years earlier, which allowed for comparison over time. RESULTS: Responses were received from 320 out of 472 organizations, yielding a response rate of 68%. Inclusion criteria were met by 153 responses and were included in the analysis; 22 of these had also responded to the earlier survey. Median total budget was $300,000 and state and local government funding was the largest revenue source (Mdn = 30%, range: 0-100%), followed by patient care generated revenue (Mdn = 20%, range: 0-100%). The mean charge for an evaluation was $283 (SD = 196.11, range: $0-$800). Forty percent of teams indicated that managed care had no impact where as 49% saw a negative impact. Comparisons between the responses to this survey and the one done 1993 demonstrated that teams were seeing about the same number of patients and showed trends towards increased budget amounts and broader inclusion of various health care and non-health care disciplines on the teams. CONCLUSIONS: No single source of funds for such teams has emerged as the uniform solution for all teams. Creative patchworks composed of various funding sources remain the typical solution to the funding needs of medically-oriented child protection teams.