Child Care Professionals Research Articles

Examination of Work Environment Factors Relating to Burnout Syndrome of Early Childhood Educators in Greece

Early childhood education is a profession which requires the professional staff to spend considerable time in intense involvement with other people. The pressure from the demands this profession has can create a sense of physical and emotional exhaustion that often leads to burnout. Thus, previous research has linked perceptions of the work environment to burnout. Despite the fact that burnout was identified as a serious concern in the childcare profession over 20 years ago, limited research has been undertaken into the field of burnout in early childhood educators in Greece. The present study, employing the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Educators Survey and the Parents and Staff subscale of the Environment Rating Scale Self-assessment Readiness Checklist, aims to examine whether there is correlation between the levels of burnout reported by Greek early childhood educators and the level to which the setting meets their needs. Research data suggest that the subscales predict one another whereas only partial correlations were found among the “Emotional Exhaustion” and “Depersonalization” subscales and the ratings in the Parents and Staff subscale.

Emotional availability, attachment, and intervention in center-based child care for infants and toddlers

According to data from the 1997 NICHD Study of Child Care, center-based child care can have deleterious effects on children's social-emotional development. We hypothesized that training child care professionals to develop positive relationships with children in their care would improve the quality of center-based child care. Thirty-three professional caregiver-child pairs participated in the intervention group and 24 professional caregiver-child pairs were assigned to a care as usual comparison group. The intervention consisted of an informational and a practice component with an emotional availability (EA) coach. The infants and toddlers (ages 11 to 23 months) in the classrooms were enrolled in the project only if they spent at least 20 hr per week in center-based care. The measures included were (a) the EA Scales, (b) the Attachment Q-Sort, and (c) the Classroom Interaction Scale. The intervention group professional caregiver-child relationships showed improvements on the EA Scales, Attachment Q-Sort, and the Classroom Interaction Scale from pre- to posttest, compared to the comparison group, who showed some decrements over a comparable period of time.

Does Night Care Affect Development? A Five-year Follow-up

Japanese regulations have aimed to monitor night care for children since 1981, when a tragic accident took the life of a child in an unauthorized ch ild care center. Nevertheless, concerns persist about the efficacy of the care of children outside the home during the nighttime hours. This longitudinal project assessed the development and adaptation of children who had been in night care for a period of five years. Parents and child care professionals completed surveys: The former about the home environment and their own perceptions of their experience of childrearing, and the latter about the children's development. The results suggest that factors in the home environment, rather than center-based care, explain developmental risks.

Health of School-Aged Children in 11+ Hours of Center-Based Care

With increasing numbers of women joining the evening/nighttime and extended-hour workforce, there is a need for quality childcare during these hours. This project, conducted in Japan, sought to compare the effects of expanded child-care on the health of 271 school-aged children. Parents completed a survey on the childrearing environment at home, their feelings of self-efficacy, and the presence of support for childcare; and childcare professionals evaluated the development of these school-aged children. Children responded to questions regarding their health. Results of the multiple regression analysis indicate that factors in the home environment, not length of time in center-based care, explained health risks at school age.

Center-Based Child Extended Care: Implications for Young Children’s Development in a Five-Year Follow-Up

Effects of early extended child care on children’s functioning from age one year through the end of year six were examined in the Japan Child Care Cohort Study. This longitudinal project sought to assess the developmental and adaptation effects on children. Parents completed a survey on the childrearing environment at home, their feelings of self-efficacy, and the available support for childcare. Childcare professionals evaluated the development of children. The results, using a panel cohort method, indicated that although parenting was a stronger and more consistent predictor of children’s development than was the early extended child-care experience, support from the spouse predicted higher vocabulary development.

Mothers or Institutions? How Women Work and Care in Slovenia and the Czech Republic

This article considers women's and men's roles in the labour market and the different ways in which care-work is shared in Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Effective policy measures can prevent parenting of young children becoming one of the greatest risks of falling into poverty. The authors discuss to what extent the prevailing ideals of care influence the policies in relation to parenting as a source of social risks. The two post-communist countries—Slovenia and Czech Republic—show different trajectories in the development of childcare policies. The article shows that Czech social policies have reproduced the traditional ideal of full-time mother-care without preventing poverty and social exclusion of families with young children of pre-school age. In contrast to this, policies in Slovenia support female employment, with the ideal of professional childcare alongside parental care-sharing, which also helps to improve the economic situation of families with small children.

Improving food provision in child care in England: a stakeholder analysis

To review national policy governing nutrition in child-care settings and explore policy translation at a regional and local level in the South East of England. Semi-structured interviews with regional experts. Child-care settings in Southampton, England, registered by OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education Children's Services and Skills). Thirteen subjects including child-care professionals in Southampton and policy advisors from the Government Office of the South East. Policy regarding early years food provision varies across the country. Although there appears to be consensus between local stakeholders on the importance of improving early years nutrition in Southampton, intentions have yet to be translated into cohesive action, with differences in food and nutrition practice in child-care settings across the city. There are also areas of incoherence, inequalities in access to training and development, and duplication in local and regional support mechanisms. The importance of proper early nutrition to provide the building blocks for life-long health and well-being is grounded in a substantial evidence base. Outside the home, early years child-care settings are an ideal place for providing a strong foundation in nutritional health and dietary habits for young children. The long-term benefits of achieving optimum nutrition in the early years should be secured through the coherent efforts of national, regional and local policy makers, child-care practitioners and parents. Existing commitment and capacity to achieve this objective at a local and regional level must be supported and matched at a national level with the acceleration of policy development, including quality control and support mechanisms.

Cooking Matters for Child Care Professionals: Lessons Learned from a Professional Training Program for Child Care Providers

Cooking Matters for Child Care Professionals: Lessons Learned from a Professional Training Program for Child Care Providers

Preparing families and institutions to manage anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis is a pediatric emergency, but most cases occur in the community outside a healthcare setting. It is therefore essential that the families, schools, nurseries and other child care professionals understand how to avoid, recognise and manage severe allergic reactions. Food allergy is the most common cause of anaphylactic reactions in children. If children are to avoid the food allergens, both their parents and the children themselves need to know exactly what food products to avoid and how to do it. This knowledge is best taught by a dietician with expertise in pediatric allergy. It is also important that the child’s other carers are trained. In a recent study it has been shown that parents to children with severe food allergy had a very poor understanding of how to avoid further contact with the trigger food. After education by an experienced dietician these families’ knowledge increased significantly from 55% to 70%. Unfortunately, even with the best education, children are going to come into contact with foods they are allergic to. The child and their family therefore need to know how to recognise an allergic reaction and appropriately deal with it. This is facilitated with the use of personalised management plan that take into account the child’s personal risk of anaphylaxis and coexistent medical problems. This plan should include both prescription and training of the child and family in self-administration of adrenalin. It has been shown that at initial presentation to a tertiary clinic, only half of the families understood how to manage an anaphylactic reaction and they did not know when to carry an EpiPen, how to use it or when to call an ambulance. After education by a skilled pediatric nurse their overall understanding of how to manage allergic reactions and how to use an EpiPen increased to around 95%. Thus, there is a need for education and training of families with children at risk for anaphylaxis, and studies indicate that such educational programmes may increase both knowledge and abilities of the families to avoid risk situations and to manage emergencies.

Diagnosis of food allergy and practical management of anaphylaxis: acute management

Anaphylaxis is a paediatric emergency but most cases occur in the community. Children with suspected food allergy need to be assessed and the trigger foods identified (Roberts 2007). The family then require dietetc education to help avoid further exposure (Roberts 2008). With increasing replacement of home-cooked products with manufactured ones, the avoidance of trigger food allergens has become increasingly difficult. It is therefore essential that families, schools, nurseries and other child care professionals understand how to avoid, recognise and manage allergic reactions (Muraro 2007; Muraro 2010). The child and their family therefore need to know how to recognise an allergic reaction and appropriately deal with it. This is facilitated with the use of personalised management plan that take into account the child’s personal risk of anaphylaxis and coexistent medical problems. These plans also need to be shared with the children's other carers. With this approach, we have an opportunity to reduce the future morbidity and mortality that our patients with food allergy experience.

Home, school partnerships in family child care: providers’ relationships within their communities

Professional family child care providers’ work with children from birth through age five can be exemplary, particularly with regard to building stable and substantive relational ties. Such long‐term engagements with client children and their families offer potential for strong partnership with families and local contexts over time. This paper explores providers’ stories that illustrate such a favourable connection: how continuity between providers, parents and neighbourhood schools becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.

Creating bookworm boys

Getting boys into books can seem like an Everest-style challenge for childcare professionals at times. Here Phoebe Doyle gives some tips for getting boys enthusing about literature.

Achieving positive outcomes for children in care

Professional Childcare: When? The Power of Parenting The Pillars of Parenting Managing Challenging and Self-Limiting Behaviour Supporting Adaptive Emotional Development The Education Dimension Psychological Consultation and Support Theory into Practice Into the Future

Living psychology: The ‘emotional warmth’ dimension of professional childcare

Children and young people in public care are arguably the most vulnerable group in our society and, despite considerable support and financial expenditure, the outcomes for these children have remained stubbornly poor. While the worthy intentions of government initiatives over recent years are not in question, it is clear that there is a need for a new theory-led, evidence-based model of professional care and support. This paper presents a psychological perspective which links early childhood experiences with restricted life outcomes. It argues that it is parental rejection (sometimes accompanied by abuse and neglect) which is a major mediating factor in the often-restricted life outcomes for many of these children.The ‘emotional warmth’ approach to professional childcare enables a visiting applied psychologist to empower residential and foster carers to provide high quality parenting, sensitive support for post-trauma stress and a deeper understanding of the (often hidden) signature strengths of these children and young people. The inclusion of these three components in a support plan is likely to promote positive emotional, social and academic development of children in public care. The major role of the applied psychologist consultant in the emotional warmth model is discussed and appropriate outcome measures for this approach to childcare are considered.‘Foster and residential care is a complex activity.’(National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence/Social Care Institute for Excellence, 2010, p.9)‘We believe that the greatest gains in reforming our care system are to be made in identifying and removing whatever barriers are obstructing the development of good personal relationships, and putting in place all possible means of supporting such relationships where they occur.’(House of Commons, 2009, p.27, para. 29)

Qualifying reasons for concern

Voice: the union for childcare professionals is teaming up with Chiltern College, and other interested parties, to lobby the government over a number of concerns that have surfaced recently in the sector.

Know your Worth

Tricia Pritchard calls on nannies, parents, and the Government to give the childcare profession the respect it deserves.

How can we reach reluctant parents in childcare programmes?

Young children benefit most from their experiences in childcare centres when their parents are actively involved in centre activities. However, childcare professionals sometimes face obstacles in engaging and maintaining cooperative working relationships with families. This is especially true for families that are hard to reach or families that are reluctant to develop or maintain such a relationship. This article provides childcare professionals with a framework for understanding various factors – both external and internal to families – which might impede the development of such a relationship. Further, the article describes techniques for working with different types of family patterns in ways that increase the likelihood of centres and families providing a nurturing environment for their children.

From tears to words: the development of language to express pain in young children with everyday minor illnesses and injuries

Little is known about the development of language to express pain in the young or how children and parents verbally communicate when young children have everyday minor illnesses and injuries. UK parents of children between the ages of 1 and 6 were invited to complete an Internet survey on children's pain language during everyday situations of minor illness or injury. Of the 1716 parents completing the survey, 45% reported their child had at least one word to express pain by 17 months of age, increasing to 81% by 23 months of age. Children used different words based on their age and in the contexts of minor illnesses and injuries, with words for expressing pain related to illness emerging slightly later. Children's language was purposeful in describing causes of pain and requesting specific forms of assistance from parents even in the very youngest age groups. Parents' communicated with their children primarily to gain further information about the source and nature of pain and to direct children's behaviour. Children rapidly develop an extensive vocabulary to describe pain between 12 and 30 months of age, with words for pain from injury emerging first and reflecting the development of normal speech acquisition. The differences in verbal expressions in the context of minor illnesses and injuries suggest that children make a cognitive distinction between the origins and sensory aspects of pain. These findings can help parents, childcare and healthcare professionals to appreciate the early communication capabilities of young children and to engage in more effective pain assessment and management for young children.

Infant-holding side biases: Comparison of laterality patterns in childcare professionals and mothers or students

Among the various interactions between an adult and an infant, postural behaviours and their lateral biases expressed by adults for holding an infant represent a growing field of investigation. To better understand the building up of mother/child relationships, the current study reports data concerning infant-holding biases collected in a new population, namely childcare professionals, where experience with and emotional relationships with infants could be classified as intermediate between basic and advanced. Two sub-populations of childcare professionals were studied: women who work in maternity hospitals and women who work in day-care centres. Their infant-holding side preferences were correlated with emotional perceptive biases to ascertain whether hemispheric specialisation influences holding side biases as well as in basic holding relationships. Results showed that childcare professionals behaved like mothers, which means like participants with advanced holding relationships. The discussion emphasises the complexity of infant-holding behaviours and the importance of considering the nature of holding relationships in the study of side-of-hold biases.

Child development and childcare in Japan

With increasing numbers of women joining the workforce, there is a need for quality childcare. This project, conducted in Japan and using a large number of participants, sought to standardize an evaluation scale to measure the development of children. The development of children under six years of age (N = 22,819) who are enrolled in childcare programs was evaluated by childcare professionals. Percentiles were calculated (10th, 50th, and 90th percentile points) for each item (total 192) of six developmental subscales (gross motor, fine motor, social competence, communication, vocabulary, and intelligence development). The results supported the validity of this scale in measuring child development in Japan.