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The aim of this study was to identify factors that help toddlers form attachment relationships with their caregivers during the transition from sole home care to out-of-home childcare. We investigated relationship building between toddlers and their new caregivers during the first four months in childcare. In a sample of 104 toddlers (aged 10–33 months) in 71 Viennese childcare centres, we assessed attachment security (using the Attachment Q-Sort) at three time points. We also assessed children’s experiences with their new care providers at each time point, focusing on dyadic caregiver sensitivity (a) during one-to-one interactions with the individual target child, and (b) during interactions with all children in the group. We investigated whether attachment security in the early months of childcare differs between girls and boys, to see if gender, in combination with caregiver interaction, has a role in predicting differences between toddlers’ attachment security. Higher attachment security was found in girls, and in those children with caregivers scoring higher on the group-related measure of sensitivity. Dyadic sensitivity did not predict toddlers’ attachment security. Findings support the development of attachment/relationship theory, in the context of childcare for young children, that takes account of children’s experiences in groups rather than only in one-to-one interactions.

The article covers one aspect of a current research project, ‘Toddlers' Adjustment to Out-of-Home Care’. Financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), it is conducted at the University of Vienna, and is introduced in the present paper in much compressed form. The project operates with an interdisciplinary design, which includes Young Child Observation as a research tool. While data of 100 children are collected and analysed by the use of different research methods, 11 of these children have been observed during the first six months of day care. At the focus of the present paper stands a one-year-and-nine-month-old little boy named Valentine. The (anonymous) day care centre where he spends several hours of each day is distinguished by its modern architectural design, as well as the fact that the children are kept in ‘mixed age groups’ and taken care of with what is called an ‘open group approach’. Within these given structures, the caregivers appear unable to provide Valentine with a feeling of sec...

Die Autorinnen sind seit geraumer Zeit in Projekte involviert, in denen die so genannte Work Discussion nach dem Tavistock-Konzept als Methode der Fallarbeit im Dienste der Professionalisierung des padagogischen Handelns in fruhpadagogischen Berufsfeldern zur Anwendung gebracht wird. Dabei wird von der Annahme ausgegangen, dass Professionalisierungsprozesse insbesondere uber die Ausbildung und Kultivierung von Verstehenskompetenz uber Fallarbeit erfolgen. Anhand der im ersten Abschnitt vorgestellten Fallvignette wird verdeutlicht, vor welchen professionellen Herausforderungen Erzieherinnen in Kindertagesstatten oftmals stehen (1). Dies fuhrt zu einigen knappen Bemerkungen zum aktuellen fruhpadagogischen Professionalisierungsdiskurs (2), um daran anknupfend die Work Discussion als Methode der Fallarbeit ins Zentrum der Ausfuhrungen zu stellen. Anhand der ausgewahlten Fallvignette wird veranschaulicht, in welcher Weise Veranderungsprozesse im Wahrnehmen, Handeln und Nachdenken von Erzieherinnen angestosen werden konnen (3). Abschliesend wird diskutiert, inwiefern diese Veranderungsprozesse im Dienste der Professionalisierung in fruhpadagogischen Berufsfeldern stehen (4).