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Quality of Care at School‐Aged Child‐Care Programs: Regulatable Features, Observed Experiences, Child Perspectives, and Parent Perspectives
Author(s) -
Rosenthal Robert,
Vandell Deborah Lowe
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01866.x
Subject(s) - psychology , psychosocial , child care , autonomy , perception , developmental psychology , flexibility (engineering) , nursing , medicine , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , political science , law
This study investigates children's experiences at 30 school‐aged child‐care (SACC) programs. Regulatable features such as total enrollment, child‐staff ratio, and staff education were assessed via director report. Observers recorded positive/neutral and negative staff‐child interactions, and rated programs in terms of flexibility and age appropriateness. Negative staff‐child interactions were more frequent when child‐staff ratios were larger and when staff had less formal education. The presence of a greater number of different types of program activities was associated with staff having more frequent positive interactions with children and with observers rating programs as flexible and age appropriate. These regulatable and observed features were examined in relation to children's ( N = 180) and parents' ( N = 152) perceptions of program psychosocial climate. Children's reports of overall climate, emotional support from staff, and autonomy/privacy provisions were predicted by program features. Children reported poorer program climate when programs had larger enrollments and when observers recorded more frequent negative staff‐child interactions. Children had more positive program perceptions when programs offered a greater variety of activities. Children's reports of program climate in addition to observed child‐staff ratios were associated with parental perceptions of the programs. Parents had more positive perceptions when child‐adult ratios were smaller and when their children reported more positive climates. This study suggests a convergence between observer, child, and parent about factors contributing to quality of after‐school programs.