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This study describes the differences of parents’, teachers’, and the researcher’s assessment of quality of five different child care programs. This study focuses on infant and toddler classrooms or care settings. Parents, and teachers/providers completed the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale and the Definition of Quality Questionnaire in order to rate the quality of infant and toddler child care programs. The findings from the questionnaires supported existing research that indicates a majority of child care programs in the United Stated range from poor to mediocre; and parents utilizing all types of cares, licensed/certified or otherwise, tended to overrate the quality of child care programs. In this study, the only exception to this tendency was the ratings of quality in the licensed and accredited center, where parents’, teachers’, and the researcher’s ratings were similar. This study provides a new contribution to the field of child care research in its finding that some of the teachers in all the different types of care settings investigated (with the exception of the licensed and accredited center) also tended to overrate the quality of infant and toddler child care programs. Follow up interviews were conducted with some of the parents and teachers, in order to explore the reasons behind their ratings of quality. The consensus was that parents and teachers identified characteristics of quality that were dissimilar to those identified by child care experts. There are many possible reasons for this result, including lack of adequate information to help them identify determinant characteristics of quality programs, that there was difficulty in assessing quality, and that there was a lack of demand for quality programs. / Master of Science

This thesis is an industry study of the market for in-home child care--a market which has developed rapidly in the past 10 years. The economic considerations discussed herein are the market-making characteristics of demand (for nannies), supply (availability of an appropriately skilled labor pool--from both the legal and illegal market), price (wage levels and premiums) and the contracting issues of asymmetric information, search costs, transaction costs, uncertainty and risk. The market is best-explained as a search model and its behavior is driven by solutions to contracting problems. / Master of Arts

At a time when problems faced by youth and families are complex and multi-faceted, organizations serving this audience have limited resources and find single-agency, categorical approaches inadequate. Collaboration offers communities a process to create solutions that are holistic and maximize resources. The purposes of this study were to examine factors necessary for collaboration and to assess barriers and incentives for these relationships. Case study methodology was applied to a rural community child care collaborative in Fauquier County, Virginia. All members who had ever served on the Board of Directors for this collaborative program were surveyed. The theoretical basis for research were 19 factors associated 'Nith collaboration identified by Mattessich & Monsey (1992). Respondents were asked to determine to what extent they considered these factors to be important and to what extent they were evident in the collaboration studied. In addition, open ended questions probed barriers and incentives for collaboration as experienced by respondents. / Master of Science

Text in Afrikaans / Children in children’s homes often make use of specific behaviour - defined as contact boundary disturbances in Gestalt theory - as a result of their intense emotional needs, but also to protect themselves or to be assertive in their current environment. This qualitative, applied study aimed to determine and describe the way the child care workers of a rural child and youth care centre manage and experience the contact boundary disturbances of children in the children’s home. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight child care workers. In conducting the study, the researcher found that the child care workers had inadequate knowledge and insight regarding contact boundary disturbances and how to handle it. It was concluded that the management of children’s homes must ensure that training and support are provided to child care workers so that their needs are addressed in order to prevent burnout. Recommendations that will be valuable with respect to the handling skills and emotional experiences of child care workers were made. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Spelterapie)

Text in Afrikaans / Children in children’s homes often make use of specific behaviour - defined as contact boundary disturbances in Gestalt theory - as a result of their intense emotional needs, but also to protect themselves or to be assertive in their current environment. This qualitative, applied study aimed to determine and describe the way the child care workers of a rural child and youth care centre manage and experience the contact boundary disturbances of children in the children’s home. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight child care workers. In conducting the study, the researcher found that the child care workers had inadequate knowledge and insight regarding contact boundary disturbances and how to handle it. It was concluded that the management of children’s homes must ensure that training and support are provided to child care workers so that their needs are addressed in order to prevent burnout. Recommendations that will be valuable with respect to the handling skills and emotional experiences of child care workers were made. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Spelterapie)

A Educação Infantil tem sido um importante contexto de desenvolvimento para muitas crianças. No caso de bebês, os cuidados, as interações educadora-bebê e os espaços precisam ser pensados para que atendam as necessidades individuais de cada um, considerando o momento delicado do seu desenvolvimento. Deste modo, a presente pesquisa investigou, em dois estudos, as contribuições do Programa de acompanhamento para educadoras de berçário – PROACEB, baseado na abordagem pikleriana, para a promoção da qualidade das interações educadora-bebê. O Estudo 1 investigou, a partir dos relatos de sete educadoras de dois berçários da rede pública municipal de Porto Alegre, as contribuições do PROACEB para a atividade autônoma do bebê, a organização do espaço e a rotina do berçário, bem como as competências das próprias educadoras na interação com o bebê. As contribuições do PROACEB foram examinadas através de entrevistas, realizadas antes e após a intervenção. Já o Estudo 2 apresenta um estudo de caso que investigou os relatos de uma educadora sobre os conteúdos de cada encontro do PROACEB em relação as mesmas categorias de análise, que buscou destacar as impressões da educadora sobre o PROACEB e os diálogos educadora-pesquisadora frente a cada conteúdo apresentado no acompanhamento. Os resultados de ambos os estudos revelaram que o PROACEB propiciou um espaço de escuta e sensibilização para os conteúdos abordados, bem como de troca de conhecimento. Além disto, contribuiu para a promoção da qualidade das interações educadora-bebê, principalmente no que diz respeito ao reconhecimento da autonomia do bebê e organização do ambiente. A abordagem pikleriana, embasadora do PROACEB, se mostrou útil como ponto de partida para abordar conhecimentos e competências importantes para uma interação educadora-bebê de qualidade. / The Early Childhood Education has been an important development context for many children. In the case of infants, the care, the child-educator interactions and the spaces must be designed to meet the individual needs, considering the delicate moment of its development. Thus, this research investigated in two studies, the contributions of the Monitoring Program for Nursery Educators – PROACEB, based on piklerian approach, to promote the quality of child-educator interactions. The Study 1 investigated, from reports of seven educators from two nurseries of the public services of Porto Alegre, PROACEB contributions to the autonomous activity of the child, the organization of space and the routine of the nursery as well as the educators’ skills to interaction with the child. The PROACEB contributions were examined through interviews conducted before and after the intervention. While Study 2 presents a case study which investigated reports of an educator on the contents of each PROACEB meeting, in relation to the same categories of analysis. It sought to highlight the impressions of the educator on PROACEB and educator-researcher dialogues in front of each content approached on the monitoring. The results of both studies revealed that PROACEB provided a space for listening and awareness of the content covered, as well as exchange of knowledge. In addition, it contributed to the promotion of the quality of the child-educator interactions, especially with regard to the recognition of the child's autonomy and organization of the environment. The piklerian approach that based the PROACEB, proved useful as a starting point for addressing important knowledge and skills for a child-educator quality interaction.

The purpose of this study was to gather data relating to motivations of individuals who volunteer to participate as foster parent. By surveying potential, as well as current volunteers, a motivational profile was obtained that will aid in future recruitment and retention efforts.

The purpose of this study is to promote a more positive perspective on group homes by raising awareness of their strengths. By identifying strengths, group homes can gain knowledge of and build upon assets to better meet the needs of children in the child welfare system.