One hundred and six families of 2-year-old children, having experienced either family
day care or centre-based day care, took part in this study. Parents’ and
day care providers’ representations and values concerning their ideal
definition of child care were assessed, and direct observations of child care
settings conducted, using a time-sampling procedure. The instruments concerning both
representations and observations have a seven dimension structure: caregiver
availability, stimulation, firmness, warmth, autonomy, achievement, and
organisation. When children were 3 years of age, the families were contacted again
(16% drop out) for an evaluation of various outcomes: parental reports of child
behaviour problems (CBCL) and egoresiliency (CCQ), assessments of child
developmental quotient (McCarthy), and of attachment representations (ASCT). The day
care variables (care providers’ representations and observed variables of
the setting), unexpectedly explained the variance of the dependent variables
(especially behaviour problems) more than the corresponding parental variables.
These results contrast with other studies in the field. Apparently, they can be
attributed to the relatively wide span of dimensions, as well as to the variety of
child care settings considered. Non-parental and parental care had some selective
effects on the different dependent variables. The effects of representations were
globally stronger than those of observed characteristics. These data point to the
importance of child care quality, emphasise the idea that quality is
multidimensional, and stress the significance of caregivers’
representations and values.
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