Child Care Workers Research Articles

Effects of Micro-Teaching in Childcare Settings: Development of Childcare Workers’ Abilities Through On-the-Job Training

Effects of Micro-Teaching in Childcare Settings: Development of Childcare Workers’ Abilities Through On-the-Job Training

A Study of the Process of Career Development of Childcare Workers (2)

A Study of the Process of Career Development of Childcare Workers (2)

Research on the environment and habituation of piano practice in the childcare worker training curriculum

Research on the environment and habituation of piano practice in the childcare worker training curriculum

Low frequency of SARS-CoV2 infection in daycare centers during the reopening of school activities in the Southeast's poor area of Brazil.

ABSTRACTSARS-Cov2 has already infected over 482 million people and caused more than 6.1 million deaths. The beginning of the pandemic has led the health authorities of several countries to adopt non-pharmacological preventive measures such as daycare closures. The reopening took place when the country had the highest rates of infection and mortality (mainly due to the gamma variant (P.1) outbreak) and the beginning of the vaccination program. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of SARS-CoV2 in daycare after educational activities resumed. The study was conducted in seven childcare facilities. Swab samples from the nasopharynx were collected from children and staff members. The viral RNA was obtained through PureLink RNA extraction kit purification and SARS-CoV2 presence was detected using the All plex SARS-CoV2 kit. The study population included 201 participants, including daycare workers and children. The average age of the workers and children is 40 and 3 years old, respectively. Among the children, 47.5% are female and among the workers, 91.4%. One (0.5%) test came out positive for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, which was from a sample of an asymptomatic childcare worker, and no secondary infections were detected. Considering that the return to daycare activities occurred during a period with a high number of deaths and a lack of vaccines throughout the country, the small number of cases indicates the effectiveness of the several preventive measures used by daycare centers in preventing SARS-CoV2 transmission.

Trial of collaborative education in institutions training childcare workers and affiliated nurseries

Trial of collaborative education in institutions training childcare workers and affiliated nurseries

Cognition of Groups of Childcare Workers Fostering Children's Ability to Interact with People

Cognition of Groups of Childcare Workers Fostering Children's Ability to Interact with People

The influence of adult attachment on parenting stress in child care worker of child care institution mediating effect of basic psychological need satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of a childcare worker s adult attachment on parenting stress and the mediation effects of basic psychological need satisfaction. The survey was conducted in Gwangju and Chonnam with 161 childcare workers at a childcare institution. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 25.0 and SPSS PROCESS macro 3.3. The results are as follows. First, there was a positive correlation between insecure adult attachment and parenting stress. There was a negative correlation between basic psychological need satisfaction and parenting stress. Second, autonomy of basic psychological need satisfaction mediated the relationship between insecure adult attachment and parenting stress.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Nurseries' Workers toward Infection Prevention among the Children


 Background: Infections are common in the children attending daycare centers how act as predisposes to it. Hygienic interventions have a fundamental role in infection control and disease prevention in child care settings.
 Objective: - To evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of nurseries workers in infection prevention and control among the children.
 Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study using the researcher-developed questionnaire validated by two experts and piloted and 100 nurseries-workers had participated in it.
 Result: the mean age of participants was 37.5 years±12.1, (37%) aged 18-30 yrs, 58% married, and 57% with higher education, 54% of nurseries the participant take care of 11-20 children. 67 (67%) had correct knowledge about infection control, (91%) had the corrected practice, but unfortunately, 47 (47%) had low-attitude. Education level has significantly associated with the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the child care workers.
 Conclusion: the majority of the nurseries workers had good knowledge and correct practice and less about their attitude in infection prevention.

Staff Experiences of Stress and Coping in a Residential Treatment Facility for Youth

Working in social services tends to be very stressful for workers. Caregivers are asked to work long hours, complete paperwork and administrative tasks and are responsible for the care and wellbeing of others. Eleven female Childcare Workers were interviewed to determine what causes them stress at work and how they cope. Stress was caused by: long hours, no breaks, low wages, unpaid work, poor communication, consistency and training, high expectations of staff, temper tantrums, abuse, and anxiety about meeting resident’s needs. Workers would like more support from their managersand reported a lack of effective teamwork. Many reported not coping well with the stressors of this job and most reported that they take their work stress home with them.

Perceived to be incompetent, but not a risk: Why men are evaluated as less suitable for childcare work than women

AbstractMen are widely underrepresented in early childhood education and care worldwide. Professional childcare is often believed to require communal qualities typically associated with the female gender role, like being sensitive to others' needs. Men's underrepresentation in childcare work likely occurs as a result of the perceived incongruity between communal qualities required for childcare work and agentic qualities associated with men and the male gender role. Using a between‐subjects design, this research examined how personality traits (communal vs. agentic) of people interested in early childcare and their gender (woman vs. man) affect evaluations of their suitability for childcare work. This online experiment further investigated the potential underlying mechanisms—ascribed childcare competence and perceived risk of perpetrating child abuse—and tested whether these explanations contribute to men's less favorable evaluations. Results showed that participants (N = 242) evaluated the communal candidate as more suitable for childcare work than the agentic candidate, and the male candidate as less suitable than the female candidate. Structural equation modeling showed that lower ascribed childcare competence, but not greater perceived risk of perpetrating sexual or physical child abuse, contributed to men's lower perceived suitability. This research provides support for the reasoning that persisting gender stereotypes can hinder men's entry into childcare work, as people discount men's competence and ability to care for children. Moreover, this research suggests that incongruity theories are also valid in the context of men pursuing traditionally female‐dominated communal roles. Practical implications are discussed in relation to strategies for increasing gender diversity in childcare work.

Does Childcare Work Promote Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Health? A Cross-Sectional Study of Danish Childcare Workers Based on Accelerometry and Heart Rate Measurements.

Childcare workers are reported to have poor cardiorespiratory fitness and health. The Goldilocks Work Principle argues that productive work should be designed with the right composition, intensity and alternations of physical behaviors so that workers get fit and healthy. The purpose of this study was to investigate: (1) composition, (2) intensity and (3) alternations of physical behaviors during work and leisure among childcare workers. Data were collected using accelerometers and heart rate monitors over five workdays among 51 childcare workers at five Danish childcare institutions. Workers mainly spent their work time sedentary (43.0%), spent little time (0.7%) at sufficiently high cardiometabolic intensity to increase cardiorespiratory fitness and often alternated between physical behaviors (67.0% occurred in bouts of <5 min). These findings indicate that the workers have a composition of behaviors at work dominated by sedentary time, little time with high cardiometabolic intensity, and frequent alternations between behaviors. During leisure, workers spent more time sedentary (59.4%), more time at high cardiometabolic intensity (3.4%) and less time occurred in bouts <5 min (38.7%). We see a potential for promoting cardiorespiratory fitness and health of childcare workers by redesigning the way they play with the children, so that work time with high cardiometabolic intensity is increased.

Challenges Confronting Child and Youth Care Workers and Organisations in Their Work Milieu during the Covid-19 Pandemic in South Africa

Child and youth care is devoted to protecting vulnerable children and youths and enhancing their well-being. Covid-19 brought many challenges to both child and youth care workers and centres in their work milieu in South Africa. Guided by a qualitative research design and the use of purposive sampling, the study sought to understand the experiences of practitioners working at different child and youth care centres. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis was used to guide the analysis. The article offers insights into the challenges faced by practitioners at these organisations during the Covid-19 pandemic. In summary, the children at these facilities presented with emotional distress and behavioural problems due to the protracted separation from their parents, family reunification was affected and the child and youth care workers themselves had to deal with increased personal fear and distress as their colleagues tested positive for Covid-19. More important were the new and diverse changes that had to be made to safeguard the well-being of the staff and children at these facilities.

Occupational risk of COVID-19 in the first versus second epidemic wave in Norway, 2020.

BackgroundThe occupational risk of COVID-19 may be different in the first versus second epidemic wave.AimTo study whether employees in occupations that typically entail close contact with others were at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related hospitalisation during the first and second epidemic wave before and after 18 July 2020, in Norway.MethodsWe included individuals in occupations working with patients, children, students, or customers using Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) codes. We compared residents (3,559,694 on 1 January 2020) in such occupations aged 20–70 years (mean: 44.1; standard deviation: 14.3 years; 51% men) to age-matched individuals in other professions using logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, birth country and marital status.ResultsNurses, physicians, dentists and physiotherapists had 2–3.5 times the odds of COVID-19 during the first wave when compared with others of working age. In the second wave, bartenders, waiters, food counter attendants, transport conductors, travel stewards, childcare workers, preschool and primary school teachers had ca 1.25–2 times the odds of infection. Bus, tram and taxi drivers had an increased odds of infection in both waves (odds ratio: 1.2–2.1). Occupation was of limited relevance for the odds of severe infection, here studied as hospitalisation with the disease.ConclusionOur findings from the entire Norwegian population may be of relevance to national and regional authorities in handling the epidemic. Also, we provide a knowledge foundation for more targeted future studies of lockdowns and disease control measures.

Occupational risk of COVID-19 by country of birth. A register-based study.

BackgroundOccupational exposure has been suggested to contribute to a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 among immigrants. We aim to assess this hypothesis in Norway.MethodsIn 2729 627 adults born in Norway, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey, we examined whether persons employed as taxi drivers, bus and tram drivers, child care workers, nurses, personal care workers in health, food service counter attendants, waiters/bartenders, cleaners and shop sale persons had a higher risk of COVID-19, from 1 April 2020 to 2 December 2020, compared with (i) Norwegian-born in the same occupational group and (ii) all others with the same birth country and aged 20–70 years, using logistic regressions.ResultsWithin each occupational group, immigrants had a greatly increased odds of COVID-19 when compared with Norwegian-born (odds ratio [OR] ~ 1.66–12.72). However, immigrants working in the selected occupations had the same odds of COVID-19 as person with same birth country not having the same occupation (OR ~ 1). Exceptions were Somalian, Afghani and Iraqi personal care workers in health services who had an increased odds of COVID-19 compared with others from the same country.ConclusionOccupation is not an important driver of the high rates of COVID-19 among immigrants from Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Counter-professionalization as an occupational status strategy: The production of professionalism in Israeli child-care workers’ identity work

AbstractRecent approaches to professions and professional identity question the premise that professionalization is the ultimate generator of status, showing that the classical model of professionalization does not always coincide with workers’ creative construction of professionalism and professional dignity. Extending these approaches, and focusing on workers’ identity discourse, this study examines how private child-care workers in Israel claim professional status precisely by avoiding formal professionalization and promoting a counter-professionalization ethos. Drawing on field observations and interviews, we analyze nannies’ tacit occupational community dynamics, by which they establish professional rules and boundaries and discursively construct a respected professional self. Their identity-talk reveals a vocational self-imaging based on personal charisma, one that resists training and credentials. This vocational self-imaging allows rebuttal of the nanny stereotype as a low-class uneducated workforce, associated with their ethnicized backgrounds, by symbolically transforming it and using it as a high-value identity resource. This counter-professionalized identity-talk prevails despite the social distinction between senior and junior nannies. Thereby, nannies gain professional status while the professionalization of child care is rejected. The analysis of these cultural dynamics provides a stronger perspective on professions as spheres of identity construction—specifically those ranked lower as unskilled labor—and on workers’ agency behind their ostensibly passive compliance with under-professionalization.

Domain-specific life satisfaction among older adults with and without children: The role of intergenerational contact.

BackgroundLife satisfaction is associated with many important health outcomes among older adults and is an indicator of successful ageing. The present study aims to replicate earlier findings regarding relationships between satisfaction with various life domains and life satisfaction in older adults. The study furthermore explores how parental status is associated with satisfaction with different life domains and how two types of intergenerational contact (contact with own children; post-retirement work in childcare) relate to life satisfaction.MethodsParticipants were 1978 older adults, aged 65–75 year (51.7% female), who live in Bremen and took part in the OUTDOOR ACTIVE study. 82.6% of the participants had one or more children. All participants completed a questionnaire, which among others comprised items assessing life satisfaction as well as satisfaction with six different life domains (satisfaction with living situation, financial situation, leisure time, health, family, neighbors and friends).ResultsLS is significantly related to all of the investigated life domains, independent of sex and age. For the participants with children, life satisfaction had the highest association with satisfaction with family (β: 0.202; 95%CI: 0.170–0.235), followed by satisfaction with neighbors and friends (β: 0.151; 95%CI: 0.111–0.191), and health satisfaction (β: 0.148; 95%CI: 0.120–0.176). In comparison to that, participants without children had the highest association between life satisfaction and satisfaction with health (β: 0.193; 95%CI: 0.135–0.252), followed by satisfaction with family (β: 0.175; 95%CI: 0.114–0.236) and satisfaction with neighbors and friends (β: 0.154; 95%CI: 0.077–0.232). In participants with children, there was a non-significant negative association between life satisfaction and work in childcare (β: -0.031; 95%CI: -0.178–0.116), while life satisfaction was statistically significantly positively associated to work in childcare in participants without own children (β: 0.681; 95%CI: 0.075–1.288).ConclusionsThe results suggest that the domain-specific approach to life satisfaction can elucidate differences in the correlates of life satisfaction and well-being between older adults with and without children. They further suggest that the benefits of working with children for life satisfaction may be more pronounced in older adults without children than older adults with children.

Stronger together: Workplace social support among residential child welfare professionals

BackgroundResidential childcare workers (RCWs) in child welfare and youth-justice settings are at risk of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and moral distress. Workplace support has been shown to be protective against work-related harms for some helping professionals and a lack of workplace support has been cited as a contributing factor toward workforce instability; however, little is known about what types or sources of support are effective for RCWs. Participants and setting81 RCWs from 11 residential units in 11 of the 16 territorial service centers across the province of Québec, Canada. MethodsThis interpretive description study analyzed data extracted from transcripts of individual interviews guided by the Secure Base Interview protocol (Schofield & Beek, 2018). Responses to a single item were read for meaning, compared, contrasted, and then coded using the thematic analysis technique. The sources of support identified by participants as helpful were aggregated to reveal a common support system pattern. ResultsMultiple sources of social support were described; the majority were interpersonal interactions with peers, unit managers, and various interdisciplinary team members. Informal individual supports without role overlap and teams with a common vision were most often cited, even when formal supports were available. ConclusionsImplications of these findings include the need to conceptualize effective workplace social support for RCWs and to rethink the place of mutual-aid among trauma-exposed professionals in residential child welfare and youth-justice settings.

HOW MERITOCRACY FUELS INEQUALITY—PART II Reply to Critics

HOW MERITOCRACY FUELS INEQUALITY—PART II Reply to Critics

Quantifying high flexion postures in occupational childcare as they relate to the potential for increased risk of knee osteoarthritis

High knee flexion postures, despite their association with increased incidences of osteoarthritis, are frequently adopted in occupational childcare. This study sought to define and quantify high flexion postures typically adopted in childcare to evaluate any increased likelihood of knee osteoarthritis development. Through video analysis of eighteen childcare workers caring for infant, toddler, and preschool-aged children, eight high knee flexion postures were identified and quantified by duration and frequency. An analysis of postural adoption by task was subsequently performed to determine which might pose the greatest risk for cumulative joint trauma. Childcare workers caring for children of all ages were found to adopt kneeling and seated postures for extended durations and at elevated frequencies, exceeding proposed thresholds for incidences of knee osteoarthritis development. Structured activities, playing, and feeding tasks demanded the greatest adoption of high flexion postures and should be evaluated to minimise the potential childcare-related risks of osteoarthritis. Practitioner summary: High knee flexion postures (kneeling, squatting, etc.) have been associated with increased incidences of knee injury yet are commonly adopted in childcare. Childcare workers’ postures were examined through video analysis revealing that proposed adoption thresholds for knee health are commonly exceeded when caring for children of all ages. Abbreviations: OA: osteoarthritis; WSIB: workplace safety insurance board; CAD: Canadian Dollar; DK: dorsiflexed kneeling; PK: plantarflexed kneeling; SAK: single arm supported kneeling; DAK: double arm supported kneeling; FS: flatfoot squatting; HS: heels up squatting; FLRS: floor sitting; SS: side sitting or leaning; STLS: stool sitting; BR: bending and reaching

Prevalence and Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 2 in Childcare Facilities: A Longitudinal Study

ObjectiveTo evaluate the role of childcare facilities in the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a longitudinal study to gain further knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence, transmission, and spread among preschool children, their parents, and their caregivers.Study designChildren aged 1-6 years, their parents, and their caregivers in 14 childcare facilities in Dresden, Saxony/Germany were invited to participate in the KiTaCoviDD19-study between July 2020 and January 2021. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was assessed up to 4 times during the study period in all participating adults, and demographic characteristics, as well as epidemiologic information on personal SARS-CoV-2 history were obtained. Samples for stool virus shedding of SARS-CoV-2 were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction every 2-4 weeks in all participating children.ResultsIn total, 318 children, 299 parents and 233 childcare workers were enrolled. By January 2021, 11% of the participating adults were found to be seropositive, whereas the percentage of children shedding SARS-CoV-2 was 6.8%. Overall, we detected 17 children with SARS-CoV-2 virus shedding in 8 different childcare facilities. In 4 facilities, there were a maximum of 3 connected cases in children. Approximately 50% of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the children could not be connected to a secondary case in our study population.ConclusionsThis study does not provide evidence of relevant asymptomatic (“silent”) spread of SARS-CoV-2 in childcare facilities in both low- and high-prevalence settings. Our findings add to the evidence that childcare and educational settings do not have a crucial role in driving the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.