Abstract
Background
Improving childcare quality is an important goal in South Korea as many infants attend childcare centers. The quality of teacher–child interactions is a common and crucial predictor of childcare quality. Thus, it is imperative to identify the relative contributions of the variables associated with improving the interaction quality of childcare providers.
Objective
This study explored predictors of interaction quality among childcare providers. This study hypothesized that multiple variables in each domain impact the interaction quality of childcare providers. These variables include childcare providers’ background, psychological well-being, classroom characteristics, and work environment.
Methods
Survey data were collected from 803 childcare providers who were responsible for classes comprising children aged 0 to 2 years. A factor analysis of the dependent variable, correlation, and hierarchical regression were performed in this study.
Results
Among the predictors of each domain that influence interaction quality, the happiness of childcare providers included in the psychological well-being domain emerged as the strongest variable. Subsequently, the variables belief, expectation, value, distress and loneliness, teacher-director relationship, and children’s age in the professional work environment domain followed.
Conclusion
Future studies and interventions should explore diverse ways to mitigate the negative emotions experienced by childcare providers. Furthermore, ongoing professional development should be emphasized as a cost-effective way to improve interaction quality.
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Change history
31 October 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09719-4
Notes
The term youngah describes both infants (0–24 months) and toddlers (24–36 months), and refers to children aged < 3 years in the national childcare curriculum and Infant Care Act in South Korea.
The bifactor model consists of a general factor on which every item loads and a set of group factors that account for the residual covariance of items that cannot be explained by a general factor. The bifactor model assumes that the group factors are uncorrelated with one another and with the general factor (Colwell et al., 2013). The total scores are recommended for use over the subscale scores in the bifactor model (Thege et al., 2014).
Since 3 infants per provider at age 0 and mixed-age 0 with 1 classes were permitted, a score of 10, which is a criterion score, was given to 1:3 ratio classes. Then, if the ratio exceeds the standard, we subtracted one score from the 10 score. For example, a 9 score was given to 1:3.5 ratios and 1:4 ratios were converted into an 8 score. Reversely, if the ratio was below the standard, we added one score from the criterion score.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the childcare providers who participated in this study. We sincerely appreciate the grant support from the National Research Foundation of Korea for this work.
Funding
This work was supported by the Global Ph.D. fellowship award for the first author from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2018H1A2A1062267-Global Ph.D. Fellowship Program).
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Appendices
Appendices
Appendix A.
Socio-Demographic Features of Childcare Providers (N = 803)
Variables | Categories | N (%) | Variables | Categories | N (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age | 20–25 | 65 (8.1) | Marital status | Married | 596 (74.2) |
26–30 | 79 (9.8) | Single | 198 (24.7) | ||
31–35 | 89 (11.1) | No response | 9 (1.1) | ||
36–40 | 122 (15.2) | Work experience (years) | < 1 | 27 (3.4) | |
41–45 | 176 (21.9) | 1–5 | 257 (32.0) | ||
46–50 | 185 (23.0) | 5–9 | 244 (30.4) | ||
51–55 | 52 (6.5) | 9–13 | 163 (20.3) | ||
56–60 | 10 (1.2) | 13–17 | 57 (7.1) | ||
No response | 25 (3.1) | > 17 | 42 (5.2) | ||
No response | 13 (1.6) | ||||
Educational level | Credit banking system | 46 (5.7) | Province where teachers work | Seoul | 133 (16.6) |
Busan | 41 (5.1) | ||||
Teacher training center | 114 (14.2) | Daegu | 34 (4.2) | ||
3-year cyber university | 4 (0.5) | Incheon | 44 (5.5) | ||
2- or 3-year college | 345 (43.0) | Gwangju | 27 (3.4) | ||
4-year cyber university | 23 (2.9) | Daejeon | 29 (3.6) | ||
4-year university | 223 (27.8) | Ulsan | 17 (2.1) | ||
Graduate | 37 (4.6) | Sejong | 7 (0.9) | ||
No response | 11 (1.4) | Gyeonggi | 227 (28.3) | ||
Type of childcare centers | Public | 65 (8.1) | Gangwon | 21 (2.6) | |
Social Welfare Organization | 27 (3.4) | Chungbuk | 24 (3.0) | ||
Chungnam | 35 (4.4) | ||||
Corporation | 19 (2.4) | Jeonbuk | 29 (3.6) | ||
Private | 317 (39.5) | Jeonnam | 24 (3.0) | ||
Family Home Carea | 335 (41.7) | Gyeongbuk | 40 (5.0) | ||
Workplace | 40 (5.0) | Gyeongnam | 59 (7.3) | ||
Jeju | 12 (1.5) |
Appendix B.
Final Confirmative Factor Analyses Results of Caregiver Interaction Scale
Items | General factor: Sensitivity | Group factor: Negative interaction |
|---|---|---|
8. Encourages the children to try new experiences | 0.789 | |
19. Encourages children to exhibit prosocial behavior | 0.700 | |
14. Pays positive attention to the children as individuals | 0.694 | |
11. Seems enthusiastic about the children’s activities and efforts | 0.675 | |
3. Listens attentively when children speak to her | 0.667 | |
6. Seems to enjoy the children | 0.659 | |
1. Speaks warmly to the children | 0.651 | |
16. Talks to the children on a level they can understand | 0.648 | |
7. When children misbehave, explain the reason for the rule they are breaking | 0.612 | |
25. When talking to children, kneel, bend, or sit at their level to establish better eye contact | 0.527 | |
9. Does not try to exercise much control over the children | 0.400 | |
20. Finds fault easily with the children | 0.593 | |
26. Seems unnecessarily harsh when scolding or prohibiting children | 0.576 | |
10. Speaks with irritation or hostility to the children | 0.557 | |
12. Threatens children in trying to control them | 0.557 | |
4. Places high value on obedience | 0.521 | |
21. Does not seem interested in the children’s activities | 0.515 | |
22. Seems to prohibit many of the things the children want to do | 0.509 | |
2. Seems critical of the children | 0.503 | |
5. Seems distant or detached from the children | 0.455 | |
23. Does not supervise the children very closely | 0.401 | |
Internal reliability | 0.85 | 0.72 |
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Lee, J.Y., Sung, J. Multiple Determinants of Interaction Quality among Childcare Providers. Child Youth Care Forum 52, 955–982 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09713-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-022-09713-w