Do parents choose and value quality child care in New Zealand?

Abstract

The mechanism of parent choice is sometimes viewed as a way of improving the quality of child care centres. This study looks at whether parent choice is constrained by family variables such as socio-economic status, education and family income and to what extent parents do select quality. The sample for the present study included 100 child care centres catering for under two year old children from around New Zealand. The quality of each centre was assessed using two measures, a checklist (the Abbott-Shim Assessment Profile) and an interval observational procedure focusing on child-staff interactions (the Howes/Melhuish Observational Schedule). Two under two year-olds from each centre were observed for 100 minutes and their parents filled in a questionnaire about their satisfaction with the child care centre. The study showed modest correlations (-.18 to .27) between socio-economic status, education and family income and the Abbott-Shim Assessment Profile but none with observations of child/staff interactions. Eighty-six per cent of parents in the study said that this centre was their first choice and ratings of quality were highly positive. Yet for most measures there were zero correlations between research-based measures of quality and parent satisfaction. Qualitative data showed that there was some overlap between the criteria which parents mentioned as the 'best' or 'worst' things and criteria incorporated into research methods. Parents, however, were concerned about cost, location and convenience which were not part of the research measures. Comments on centres which were of high quality and low quality made by parents and early childhood trained researchers were compared.Parents were much more positive and uncritical in their comments than researchers. It was concluded that many parents make passive choices of centres rather than actively choosing between alternatives and that many do not have knowledge © Trentham Books 1996 5 Downloaded by [New York University] at 21:53 18 February 2015 SHANEE J. BARRACLOUGH AND ANNE B. SMITH or awareness of specific aspects of quality to look for. It was concluded that parent choice is not currently a viable means of controlling quality and that policy makers need to look to other mechanisms. Résumé Le mécanisme du choix des parents est quelquefois considéré comme un moyen d 'améliorer la qualité des centres d'accueil pour les enfants d'âge préscolaire. Cette étude s'attache a determiner si le choix des parents se trouve conditionné par des variables familiales telles que la catégorie socio-professionnelle, l'éducation et les revenus du menage et à évaluer la mesure dans laquelle les parents considèrent que la qualité du centre est un critère de sélection. Cette étude a été conduite sur la base d'un échantillon de 100 établissements répartis sur le territoire neo-zelandais et accueillant des enfants ages de moins de deux ans. La qualite de chaque etablissement a été établie sur la base de deux critères: une liste de controle (Abbott-Shim Assessmnent Profde-Profil d'appréci...

Learning to be in childcare: Mothers' stories of their child's ‘settling-in’

“…Thus we know, for instance, that most mothers using a variety of early childhood services tend to report being satisfied with both the choice and the quality of service they use, and that there is great variety in the aspects of the childcare arrangements which mothers report as satisfying (Barraclough & Smith, 1996;Erwin, Sanson, Amos & Bradley, 1993;Fuqua & Labensohn, 1986;Kontos, 1992;McCartney & Phillips, 1988;Pence & Goelman, 1987;Shinn, Galinsky & Gulcur, 1990). In addition, Shinn et al (1990) and Kontos (1992) have suggested that these aspects may be seen as meeting two sets of needs, those of the child and those of the adult.…”

“…Finally, a number of studies have warned that maternal satisfaction with childcare must not be confused with quality as gauged on research-based measures (e.g. Barraclough & Smith, 1996;Erdwins & Buffardi, 1994;Roopnarine, Mounts & Casto, 1986;Wylie, Kerslake-Hendricks & Meade, 1995).…”

Child-Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems in Five Pioneer States: Implementation Issues and Lessons Learned

“…7 According to market models, parents drive child-care quality by choosing better care for their children. According to Barraclough and Smith (1996), for example, "Neo-liberal policies of instrumental rationality . .…”

“…Certainly, most lack the background or training to identify or assess key quality indicators on their own (Fuqua and Labensohn, 1986). When researchers have examined whether parents' child-care quality ratings are consistent with those of expert observers using accepted ratings schemes, they have found that parent and observer quality ratings are generally unrelated, suggesting that parent ratings are not driven by actual child-care quality (Barraclough and Smith, 1996;Cryer and Burchinal, 1997;Cryer, Tietze, and Wessels, 2002). Thus, providing parents with valid and reliable information about provider quality enables them to make the sorts of informed choices that should ultimately improve quality of care.…”

Aotearoa New Zealand Kindergarten Parents Reflecting on Kindergarten: 2006-2007

“…Internationally, research consistently demonstrates parental satisfaction with their choice of childcare, even when independent researchers do not agree with the 'quality' standards of the centre/service in question [15][16][17][18][19]. This has led researchers to investigate the aspects of early childhood education that are deemed to be important to parents in an attempt to understand what sense parents do make of their and their child's experiences in early childhood education and how to support parents to make the best possible choices.…”