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The concept of Thirdspace was employed to explore the interface of Haredi religious perception and contemporary psychological notions, focusing on male Haredi (Jewish ultra-Orthodox) kindergarten teachers' perceptions of self. A two years ethnographic study was conducted, based on interactions with 90 male kindergarten teachers and 13 in-depth interviews in a Haredi Enrichment Centre for kindergarten children in Israel. The findings reveal a local notion of self-construal, including several features of contemporary Western independent self-construal along with Haredi religious perceptions. Together, these encouraged the development of an autonomous individual, capable of independently conducting his life as an adult. Children were perceived as distinct individuals with unique personal attributes whose expression would engender personal success, increase self-esteem, and encourage self-expression – all this in a religious framework that sought to enhance the joy produced by experiencing the religious way of life. This paper additionally discusses limitations and implications for other multicultural educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies underscore the need to improve caregiver-child interactions in early child care centers. Objective: In this study we used a randomized controlled trial to examine whether a 5-week video feedback training can improve six key interactive skills of caregivers in early child care centers: Sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Method: A total of 139 caregivers from 68 early child care groups for 0- to 4-year-old children in Dutch child care centers participated in this RCT, 69 in the intervention condition and 70 in the control condition. Caregiver interactive skills during everyday interactions with the children were rated from videotape using the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales at pretest, posttest, and follow-up 3 months after the posttest. Results: Results at posttest indicate a significant positive training effect on all six caregiver interactive skills. Effect sizes of the CIP training range between d = 0.35 and d = 0.79. Three months after the posttest, caregivers in the intervention group still scored significantly higher on sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, verbal communication, and fostering positive peer interactions than caregivers in the control group with effect sizes ranging between d = 0.47 and d = 0.70. Conclusions: This study shows that the quality of caregiver--child interactions can be improved for all six important caregiver skills, with a relatively short training program. Possible ways to further improve the training and to implement it in practice and education are discussed.

This study examined the effects of a newly developed on-site consultancy programme to improve global quality of the child care environment in non-parental child care centres for 0- to 4-year-old children as measured with the ITERS-R/ECERS-R. Using a randomised controlled trial with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up test, we compared 35 experimental group with 33 control group. The consultancy programme comprised three consultations in total. Analysis on the items that were specifically targeted during the consultancy showed a significant improvement on these targeted items between pretest and posttest and between posttest and follow-up. The effect of the consultancy programme on the total scores (including the non-targeted items) was not significant.

Outcomes of studies with exclusively or predominantly female caregivers suggest that boys in child care are involved with interactions, attachment relationships, and care of lower quality than girls. We investigated to what extent child gender (N = 38, 19 boys) and caregiver gender (N = 38, 19 males) is associated with child-caregiver interactions and attachment relationships. Children's involvement and caregivers' sensitive and stimulation behaviors were observed using systematic observations of semistructured play. Children's secure attachment with caregivers was observed using the Attachment Q-Sort. Research Findings: Male and female caregivers showed similar sensitive behaviors toward boys and girls, and children had similar levels of secure attachment with male and female caregivers. Female caregivers had a tendency to stimulate boys more than girls, and this behavior was associated with a lower secure attachment in boys. Girls' involvement with the caregiver was associated with male and female caregivers' sensitive behavior and with male but not female caregivers' stimulation. Conversely, boys' involvement with the caregiver was elicited by sensitive but not stimulating behavior of male caregivers but not by female caregivers. Practice or Policy: Boys and girls can have equally positive interactions and attachment relationships with both male and female caregivers.

In this observational study, male and female professional caregivers' (n = 42) levels of sensitivity and stimulation toward three-year-old children (n = 42) were observed in a semi-structured play situation. Further, sex roles of male and female caregivers were examined with the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Male and female caregivers showed the same levels of attention, sensitivity, and stimulation toward boys and girls. Furthermore, all caregivers were classified as feminine or androgynous, but not masculine. Only for female caregivers was a positive relation found between higher levels of femininity and more stimulation of girls. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that male and female staff in childcare share similar interaction styles and sex roles. However, our findings suggest that caregivers' sex roles should be included in future research as well as in the debate on men in childcare.

Research Findings: We assessed the quality of child care in a nationally representative sample of 200 Dutch child care centers using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised and/or Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised and compared it with a previous assessment in 2005. The Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales were used to rate the quality of caregiver-child interactions. Results showed a significant and substantial decline in quality compared to 2005, with 49% of the groups now scoring below the minimal level. The CIP scales showed relatively high scores for the basic caregiver interactive skills of sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, and structuring and limit setting but much lower scores for the more educational skills of verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Caregiver sensitive responsiveness was significantly lower in infant groups (0-2 years) than in preschool groups (2-4 years); caregiver respect for autonomy, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions were significantly lower in infant groups than in preschool groups and mixed-age groups (0-4 years). Practice or Policy: Quality of child care is not stable across the years, and regular quality assessments are therefore needed to monitor child care quality. The low scores on the more educational versus the more basic caregiver interactive skills indicate that these skills deserve more attention in caregiver education and training. Training programs should be attuned to the individual interaction skill profile of caregivers.

Research Findings: High-quality caregiver-child interactions constitute the core of high-quality child care for young children. This article describes the background and development of the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales to rate 6 key skills of caregivers for interacting with 0-to 4-year-old children in child care centers: sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Each interactive skill is rated on a 7-point scale based on observation of video-recorded caregiver-child interactions. Together, the 6 scale scores constitute an Interaction Profile for individual caregivers that may serve as a starting point for education and training to improve the quality of caregiver-child interactions. This article also presents the results of a 1st study with the CIP scales, in a sample of 145 caregivers from 75 child care groups in 47 child care centers in The Netherlands. Practice or Policy: Results provide promising preliminary evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the CIP scales.

An experimental study showed that a video feedback intervention improved the interaction skills of early childhood education and care teachers. The teachers who had received the Video Interaction Guidance training appeared more stimulating in their behavior, were more sensitive and more verbally stimulating than teachers from the control group. The training results were still apparent three months after the training. An analysis of the behavior of teachers at micro-level also revealed positive outcomes. These findings show that video feedback training for early childhood educators is a promising method to increase their socio-emotional support and verbal stimulation in childcare practice. (Contains 3 tables.)

The authors assessed the quality of child care in a representative national sample of 42 child-care centers in the Netherlands and compared it with the quality of care that researchers have found using similar samples in 1995 (M. H. van IJzendoorn, L. W. C. Tavecchio, G. J. J. M. Stams, M. J. E. Verhoeven, & E. J. Reiling, 1998) and 2001 (M. J. J. M. Gevers Deynoot-Schaub & J. M. A. Riksen-Walraven, 2005). In the present study, results showed a low level of overall process quality for the 2005 sample, measured by the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised (T. Harms, D. Cryer, & R. M. Clifford, 2003) and the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (T. Harms, R. M. Clifford, & D. Cryer, 1998). The present authors found a significant decline in process quality in comparison with the 1995 and 2001 findings. They concluded that, from an international perspective, the Netherlands has lost its leading position in child-care quality compared with that from 10 years ago. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)

In this study, children's attachment relationships with their professional caregivers in center day care were observed for 48 children. We explored whether more positive caregiving was associated with a more secure attachment relationship and whether this association was stronger for more temperamentally irritable children compared to less irritable children. Trained observers coded the attachment relationship in the day care setting using the attachment Q-sort. The observational record of the caregiving environment was used to assess children's individual experience of positive caregiver-child interaction in the classroom. When caregivers showed more frequent positive caregiving behavior, children showed more secure attachment behavior toward their primary professional caregiver. Temperament was not related to attachment security, nor did it serve as a moderator. Consequently, no support for Belsky's susceptibility hypothesis was found.

Mothers and primary professional caregivers of 186 children, aged 6-30 months, participated in this study in which a new measure for daily stability in center day care was developed, describing staffing, grouping, and program features. Relative contributions of infants' daily experiences of care stability, quality of care, and mother's daily stress to the child's adjustment to day care were analyzed with hierarchical regressions. The child's adjustment was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1997) and with the Leiden Inventory for the Child's Well-being in Day Care. Children enrolled in fewer care arrangements showed less internalizing behavior and more well-being in the day care setting. Children had higher well-being scores when trusted caregivers were more available. Mother's family management stress was related to more internalizing problem behavior. Interactions between mother's daily stress and stability in care were found to affect the child's adjustment to day care.

In this study, the concept of "goodness-of-fit" between the child's temperament and the environment, introduced by Thomas and Chess [Temperament and Development, Brunner/Mazel, New York, 1977], is applied within the setting of center day care. Mothers and primary professional caregivers of 186 children, aged 6-30 months, participated in this study. The child's problem behaviors were assessed with the CBCL Teacher Report Form [Achenbach, T. M., Guide for the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form for Ages 2-5, Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 1997]. The child's socio-emotional well-being in day care was measured with the Leiden Inventory for the Child's Well-Being in Day Care. The Infant Characteristics Questionnaire measured the child's temperament. Children with an easier temperament showed less internalizing and total problem behavior and more well-being. The results suggest that for children with a more difficult temperament, several parallel care arrangements interfere with the process of adapting to the day care setting. Also, our results indicate that in the group of children with greater availability of trusted caregivers, a more easy-going temperament was associated with more well-being. The association between temperament and well-being was not found in the group of children with less access to trusted caregivers.

Compared attitudes of parents and caregivers (N=568) on childrearing. Parents were consistent within families, but discontinuities existed between parents and professional caregivers. Lack of attunement in authoritarian control and support was associated with lower well-being of child; communication was associated with greater attunement and higher well-being. (Author/EMK)

In a survey of a national sample (n = 568 children) of parents and nonparental caregivers from four types of child care--day care, after-school care, family day care, and babysitter care--we studied the attunement of childrearing attitudes between parents and nonparental caregivers and perceptions of their relationships to one another and to the child from an ecological systems perspective. Parents within the same family were rather consistent in their childrearing attitudes and beliefs, but we found some discontinuities between parents and professional caregivers in their childrearing attitudes and perceptions of the quality of the child-caregiver relationship. Lack of attunement in authoritarian control and support was associated with a lower degree of child well-being. Better communication between parents and caregivers was associated with greater attunement and with a higher degree of child well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this pilot study we investigated the effect on parent-child attachment relationships of same-age versus mixed-age grouping in daycare centers in the Netherlands. For 45 children in the age range of 2 to 6 years, parent-child attachment relationships were assessed by means of the Attachment Q-Sort. It was found that attachment security did not differ significantly for children who had been in mixed-age or in same-age grouping, or who had experienced a change of daycare center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mind-mindedness refers to the caregiver's ability to be attuned to the child's mental states. Within the parent-child relationship, mind-mindedness relates to parents' sensitive caregiving, and to children's secure attachment. However, the same relations are still unexplored in out-of-home care settings. We investigated the associations between childcare professionals' mind-mindedness, sensitive responsiveness and respect for autonomy, and child-caregiver attachment security. Moreover, we examined whether these relations are influenced by caregivers' and children's gender. Participants were 17 caregiver couples (17 males, 17 females) and 34 three-year-old children (17 boys, 17 girls), recruited in childcare centers. Mind-mindedness toward the boy or the girl (dyadic) or both children (non-dyadic), sensitive responsiveness and respect for autonomy were assessed during a semi-structured play. Attachment security was assessed through observations. Male and female caregivers had equivalent scores of mind-mindedness, sensitive responsiveness, and respect for autonomy. Similarly, children were securely attached to male and female caregivers. Girls' and boys' secure attachment was predicted by caregivers' use of non-dyadic mind-related comments. For girls, but not for boys, the relation was partially mediated by caregivers' respect for autonomy. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance for the quality of child-caregiver relationships, and children's socio-emotional development., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)