Caregivers' child rearing beliefs: Associations with structural and process features of child care quality
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Abstract
This study investigated links between process and structural features of childcare quality. Caregiver beliefs, a process feature of childcare quality, was the main focus since there is a limited amount of previous research on process features of childcare quality. One hundred and five caregivers were administered structured interviews. Caregivers were also asked to fill out questionnaires concerning their beliefs about raising children. Analyses revealed that caregivers with more education had more child-centered beliefs. Furthermore, caregivers with more training and who worked in centers with lower adult: child ratios had higher quality classrooms. It also was found that caregiver beliefs partially mediated the connection between caregiver training and classroom quality. The findings suggest that there are connections between process and structural features of childcare quality, and that caregiver training may be linked to classroom quality through caregiver's child rearing beliefs.