Two measures of the quality of group care for infants and toddlers

Abstract

Two sets of quality measures of group care were used to assess their predictive power for two sets of measures of the development of infant and toddlers in group day care. One of the quality measures we investigated was the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). We replicated the findings of Scarr, Eisenberg, & DealerDeckard (1994) which were that the total score of the ECERS represents a global index and that the 37 items making up the scale are redundant and could be shortened considerably without loss of the scale as a quality criterion of group care for young children. Neither Scarr, Eisenberg, and Dealer-Deckard (1994) nor our own Factor Analyses of the 37 items supported the a priori distinction of seven Subscales. However further findings indicate that regardless of the redundancy within ECERS, two Subscales, dealing mainly with adultchild, child-child and adult-adult interactions, predict the development of infants and toddlers, but only when the measures of development were based on participant observations of the children over a longer period oftime and in the broad context ofthe natural daycare environment. None of the Subscales, nor the total ECERS predicted social development when it was based on precise time sampling observations, assessed by non participant observers, in interactions between a child and a specific caregiver. Such measures ofdevelopment were well predicted in our study by caregiver behaviors assessed through Time Sampling Observations.

Measurement of quality in preschool child care classrooms: An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the early childhood environment rating scale-revised

“…Our results further indicate that it would not be sufficient to randomly select a set of items from the scale as suggested by Scarr et al (1994) or Beller et al (1996) regarding the ECERS, or Perlman et al (2004) on the ECERS-R. The randomly chosen sets of 12 examined in the current study had alphas ranging from .59 to .68, much lower than the .89-.92 range reported by Scarr et al (1994), and much lower than our two factors individually (.81 and .87) or combined (.88).…”

“…They further reported that the 37-item scale was reducible to a randomly selected set of 12 items that was as reliable at predicting quality as the overall scale (Scarr et al, 1994). This finding was later replicated by Beller et al (1996) and Perlman et al (2004).…”

“…Although both the ECERS and the ECERS-R include seven subscales, few studies have found that the subscales represent distinct domains of quality (Beller, Stahnke, Butz, Stahl, & Wessels, 1996;Munton, Rowland, Mooney, & Lera, 1997). However, these studies relied on very small samples to replicate the initial subscales.…”

“…They further reported that the 37-item scale was reducible to a randomly selected set of 12 items that was as reliable at predicting quality as the overall scale (Scarr et al, 1994). This finding was later replicated by Beller et al (1996) and Perlman et al (2004).It would be erroneous to assume that the revised version has identical psychometric properties to the original scale since the revisions to the scale have been significant. However, recent research with the revised version of the scale yielded only one factor (Holloway et al, 2001).…”

Les facteurs prédisposant à la réussite éducative dès la petite enfance

“…Toutefois, une telle qualité s'avère difficile à atteindre et, surtout, à maintenir dans les services de garde. En effet, plusieurs recherches menées aux États-Unis et ailleurs dans le monde rapportent que le niveau de qualité s'avère généralement médiocre ou faible (Beller, Stahnke, Butz, Stahl et Wessels, 1996 ;Bigras, Bouchard, Cantin, Brunson, Coutu, Lemay, Tremblay, Japel et Charron, 2010 ;Burchinal, Roberts, Riggins, Zeisel, Neebe et Bryant, 2000 ;Petrogiannis et Melhuish, 1996). Diverses hypothèses ont été évoquées pour expliquer ce faible niveau de qualité, comme le sous-financement des services, mais aussi le niveau de formation exigé pour le personnel éducateur.…”