Front Psychol
December 2021
Children who experience well-being are engaging more confidently and positively with their caregiver(s) and peers, which helps them to profit more from available learning opportunities and support current and later life outcomes. The goodness-of-fit theory suggests that children's well-being might be a result of the interplay between their temperament and the environment. However, there is a lack of studies that examined the association between children's temperament and well-being in early childhood education and care (ECEC), and whether this association is affected by ECEC process quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs a consequence of the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) child care facilities all over the world were temporarily closed to minimize the spread of the virus. In Netherlands, the first closure lasted for almost 2 months. The return to the child care center after this significant interruption was expected to be challenging, because earlier studies demonstrated that transitions into child care can be stressful for both children and their parents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study examined the attachment development of 92 internationally adopted Chinese girls, focusing on the influence of type of pre-adoption care (institutional versus foster care) and sensitive adoptive parenting. Although the children were more often insecurely attached than non-adopted children 2 and 6 months after adoption (Times 1 and 2, = 92), they had similar levels of secure base script knowledge (SBS knowledge) as a non-adopted comparison group at age 10 (Time 3, = 87). Furthermore, concurrently observed sensitive parenting was positively associated with SBS knowledge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a previous study, we examined hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs) in children when first entering elementary school (at 4 years). In this follow-up study, we examined their HCC when they entered third grade (at 6 years), where the more playful first grades proceed into a more formal learning setting. Participants were 30 6-year-old children (14 boys).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFoster and adoptive parents often face challenges while taking care of children who, due to their adverse early life experiences, are at risk of developing insecure attachment relationships, behavior problems, and stress dysregulation. Several intervention programs have been developed to help foster and adoptive parents to overcome these challenges. In the current study, a series of eight meta-analyses were performed to examine the effectiveness of these intervention programs on four parent outcomes (sensitive parenting, k = 11, N = 684; dysfunctional discipline, k = 4, N = 239; parenting knowledge and attitudes, k = 7, N = 535; parenting stress, k = 18, N = 1,306), three child outcomes (attachment security, k = 6, N = 395; behavior problems, k = 33, N = 2,661; diurnal cortisol levels, k = 3, N = 261), and placement disruption (k = 7, N = 1,100).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Foster children are at higher risk of the development of behavior and emotional problems, which can contribute to the development of insecure attachment bonds with their foster parents and (subsequently) to placement breakdown. Sensitive parenting might minimize the adverse effects of the behavior and emotional problems. Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline in Foster Care (VIPP-FC) is an adaptation of the evidence-based Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) and aims at increasing sensitive parenting and the use of sensitive discipline strategies of foster parents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreschoolers' vocabulary acquisition sets the stage for later reading ability and school achievement. This study examined the role of socioeconomic status (SES) and the quality of the home environment of seventy-seven Chilean majority and Mapuche minority families from low and lower-middle-class backgrounds in explaining individual differences in vocabulary acquisition of their three-and-a-half-year-old children. Additionally, we investigated whether the relation between SES and receptive and expressive vocabulary was mediated by the quality of the home environment as the Family Investment Model suggests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review focuses on children's physiological responses to out-of-home childcare. The finding that children's cortisol levels are higher at childcare than at home has been well-replicated. Here we summarize recent evidence examining possible correlates of elevated cortisol levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The childcare environment offers a wide array of developmental opportunities for children. Providing children with a feeling of security to explore this environment is one of the most fundamental goals of childcare.
Objective: In the current study the effectiveness of Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting-Child Care (VIPP-CC) was tested on children's wellbeing in home-based childcare in a randomized controlled trial.
This meta-analysis reports on the effectiveness of targeted interventions focusing on child care professionals to improve child care quality, caregiver interaction skills, and child social-emotional development. Within randomized controlled trials, interventions are moderately effective in improving overall caregiver-child interactions (k = 19, Hedges' g = 0.35) and in improving child care quality on the classroom level (k = 11; Hedges' g = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article discusses significant changes in childcare policy and practice in Chile. We distinguish four specific periods of childcare history: child abandonment and the creation of foundling homes in the 19th century; efforts to reduce infant mortality and the creation of the health care system in the first half of the 20th century; an increasing focus on inequality and poverty and the consequences for child development in the second half of the 20th century; and, finally, the current focus on children's social and emotional development. It is concluded that, although Chile has achieved infant mortality and malnutrition rates comparable to those of developed countries, the country bears the mark of a history of inequality and is still unable to fully guarantee the health of children from the poorest sectors of society.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuantification of cortisol in scalp hair seems a promising measurement for long-term cortisol levels, and thereby a biomarker for stress. We examined hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) in children when first entering elementary school. Participants were 42 children (45% boys) with a mean age of 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDoes the experience of stress during child care lead to downregulation of the immune system, in particular in low-quality care? Saliva was collected from 68 toddlers attending center or family child care at home and at child care, and assayed for secretory IgA (SIgA). Caregiver sensitivity was used as an index of quality of care and was observed during three videotaped episodes of 10 min. Diurnal patterns of SIgA showed a steep fall in the morning followed by a flattening out.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the present randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of video-feedback intervention to promote positive parenting-child care (VIPP-CC) was tested in home-based child care. Forty-eight caregivers were randomly assigned either to the intervention group or to the control group. Global child care quality improved in the intervention group but not in the control group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this commentary to the child-mother attachment findings of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) we focus on the contextual conditions under which child care and the child's attachment relationship(s) may function as a risk or protective factor for child development. First, the authors' conclusion concerning child care as a risk factor for attachment security is refined. Second, suggestions are provided for incorporating possible moderators and mediators of the relations between child care, child-mother attachment, and developmental outcomes.
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