Poster #95 - Infant/Toddler Well-being in Child Care: What is the Role of Sustained Parent-Teacher Relationships?

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Introduction
Rapid developmental change occurs from birth to three years and children’s experiences can promote or hinder their social emotional well-being. While strong relationships with adults is positively associated with children’s outcomes, less is known about how quality of relationships between parents and childcare teachers promotes the social emotional well-being of infants/toddlers. This study seeks to understand how parent-teacher relationships in childcare, as experienced across the infant/toddler period, are associated with children’s well-being over time.

Methods
Participants included 164 infants/toddlers and their parents eligible for Early Head Start [EHS] childcare (Table 1) and 94 teachers. Families were eligible based on low-income status or child developmental needs. Across time, parent-teacher relationships were measured by subscales (trust/confidence; collaboration; affiliation) of the Parent Caregiver Relationship Scale (Elicker et al., 1997) and well-being was measured by subscales (total competence and total problems) of the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (Briggs-Gowan & Carter, 2006) (Table 1).

Developmental trajectories of child well-being and their longitudinal relationship with the parent-teacher relationship were examined using multilevel growth models (MLMs; Raudenbush & Byrk, 2002). The use of an MLM accounted for the dependence caused by the nested structure of the data (times nested within children/parents, children/parents nested within teachers) and allowed for the estimation of individual growth trajectories and the separation of within-person, between-person, and group-level variance. Covariates were included at each level of the model.

Results
Findings (Table 2) revealed a positive significant between-individual main effect for all three subscales of the parent–teacher relationship (Trust and Confidence, γ010= -1.89, p < .01; Collaboration, γ010= -1.67, p < .01; Affiliation, γ010 = -2.23, p < .001) and total problem scores, indicating that when a parent reported a greater level of parent–teacher relationship, including trust and confidence, affiliation, and collaboration, than other parents on average, they reported less problem behaviors for their child. Additionally, results revealed a significant between-individual positive main effect of all three subscales of the parent–teacher relationship (Trust and Confidence, γ010= 1.55, p < .001; Collaboration, γ010= 1.35, p < .01; Affiliation, γ010= 1.08, p < .01) on social emotional competence. These results suggest that when a parent reported a greater level of parent–teacher relationship, including trust and confidence, affiliation, and collaboration, than other parents, they also reported greater competence scores for their child.

Discussion
Promoting optimal social-emotional well-being is a primary objective for many early childhood programs. Parent-teacher relationships appear to be one mechanism to support this outcome. When parents report high levels of affiliation, collaboration and trust/confidence over time with teachers, children were reported to have higher social emotional competence and less total problem behaviors. Results highlight the sustained benefits of relationships between parents and teachers and suggest that parents and teachers must persist past singular negative interactions. It is the collective experience, over time, in the parent-teacher relationship that promotes social-emotional well-being. The results of this study advance our understanding of the important role of teacher-parent relationships in promoting outcomes for infants/toddlers who attend childcare.

Group Authors

EHS Parent-Teacher Intervention Consortium

Authors

• Lisa L Knoche, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Presenting Author

• HyeonJin Yoon, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Susan M. Sheridan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln