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This study reported findings from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of Carescapes, a professional development program for home-based child-care providers in promoting children's social competence. Participants included 134 child-care providers and 310 children, ages 3-5 years, in Oregon. The Carescapes intervention group made significant improvements in observed caregiver responsiveness and monitoring, and showed decreased caregiver-reported child problem behavior and improved parent-reported peer relationships compared to the control group. Increased caregiver-reported cooperation skills were found for the intervention group at follow-up. No differences in condition were found for kindergarten teacher-reported social-behavioral, classroom, and academic skills. Moderation effects on children's behavior and peer relations were found for child age and exposure to the intervention child care., (© 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Play tasks that use standardized procedures and materials are a practical way to assess parenting skills, child behaviors, and the ways in which parents and children interact. We describe a systematic process for developing the parent-child play task (PCPT) to assess mother-child interactions for a randomized controlled trial of a video-based parenting program. Participants were 307 mothers and their 3- to 6-year-old children who presented oppositional and disruptive behavior challenges. The validity of the PCPT was investigated by testing (a) the extent to which the tasks elicited the specific parent and child behaviors of interest, (b) the consistency of individuals' behavior across the play tasks, and (c) the concurrent associations of the PCPT-observed child behaviors and mother reports of child behavior. The different tasks elicited the mother and child behaviors that they were designed to elicit. Behavior consistency across tasks for individual mothers and children was fair to good, with the exception of 2 task-specific behaviors. Mother's guidance (provision of instructions to foster a skill) during the teaching task and children's interruptions while mother was busy during the questionnaire task were highly task specific. Modest associations were found between observed children's noncompliance and inappropriate behaviors and mother-reported conduct problems and oppositional behaviors. Implications for clinical and research assessments are discussed., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

Background: Parenting strategies such as communicating clear expectations, providing calm directions, and teaching specific skills can strengthen young children's social-emotional development. Parenting programs for children with disruptive behavior often emphasize gaining compliance via effective directives, and less on how to facilitate child skill acquisition or on effective parenting for differing situations and task demands. Objective: We aimed to study how parenting strategies and associated child behavior vary by situational contexts. Specifically, we focused on the differential use of directives and guidance during different tasks. Method: This observation study utilized a microsocial coding system, the Parent-Child Play Task Observation System (PCPTOS), to closely examine parent and child interactions in multiple analogue task situations. The study drew on pre-intervention data for 224 parent-child dyads who participated in a parenting-focused intervention trial for children ages 3-7 who presented elevated levels of disruptive behaviors. Results: Interrater reliabilities were very good to excellent. Parents used directives more frequently during the clean-up task and guidance more frequently during the teaching task compared to the other tasks. Associations of parent use of directives and guidance with child behavior and affect differed by task. Observed parent directives were associated with child disruptive behavior during each task, whereas parent guidance was negatively associated with child disruptive behavior and positively associated with child positive affect during the teaching task. Conclusions: Parenting strategies that are well matched to the situational context and proactively consider task demands are more likely to facilitate children's social-emotional development.

Research Findings: This observation study investigated the prevalence and correlates of learning contexts provided to preschool-age children in 133 registered child care homes in below-average-income neighborhoods in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. On average, 30% of the observed proportion of time was spent in structured teacher-led activities, 51% in free-choice activities, 10% in routine activities, 1% in watching video/TV, and 7% in transition. Home-based child care providers gave significantly more positive recognition during structured teacher-led activities, and children engaged in more prosocial behavior during free-choice time. Directives and noncompliance occurred more often during transitions. A higher child-to-caregiver ratio was associated with more time spent in free-choice time, and caregiver experience and education were not associated with the time spent in specific learning contexts. Practice or Policy: Similar to preschool and center-based child care, current practice in home-based child care is to offer a mix of structured teacher-led and free-choice activities. To facilitate young children's skill development within these learning activities typically offered, it is necessary to increase research and provide empirically based professional development opportunities relevant to home-based child care settings. Attention to home-based child care will likely reach many young children and be particularly beneficial for those in low-income households.

Home-based child caregivers face unique stressors related to the nature of their work. One hundred and fifty-five home-based child care providers in Oregon, USA, participated in this cross-sectional correlational study. We investigated associations between indicators of caregiver stress and child care working conditions, the quality of caregiver practices, frequency of child behaviour challenges, and caregivers' tolerance for those behaviours. Levels of stress in this sample were moderate to low. Significant associations were found between greater caregiver stress with higher child-caregiver ratio, working in isolation, less frequently observed caregiver positive attention, more caregiver-reported child problem behaviours and lower tolerance for problem behaviours. A multiple regression analysis with these variables significantly contributed to 23% of the variance of caregiver stress. Number of hours worked, observed caregiver negative attention, and responsiveness to children were not associated with caregiver stress. Implications of these findings and the need for future studies are discussed.