ERIC Number: EJ1190049
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Oct
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1053-1890
EISSN: N/A
Descriptive Study of Continuity of Care Practice and Children's Experience of Stability of Care in Early Head Start
Choi, Ji Young; Horm, Diane; Jeon, Shinyoung
Child & Youth Care Forum, v47 n5 p659-681 Oct 2018
Background: Continuity of care (CoC) is a widely endorsed theory-based practice in center-based early childhood programs. Despite its widespread endorsement, however, there are few empirical studies of CoC or children's actual experience of care stability in infant and toddler group settings. Objective: This descriptive study investigated (1) the national percentage of EHS programs with centers implementing CoC, (2) potential differences between EHS programs with all or none of their operating centers implementing CoC, (3) the number of teacher changes children experienced during two consecutive years in EHS, as an indicator of early care stability, and (4) child and family characteristics of children having different levels of care stability during their EHS programs. Methods: Using the recently released Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study (Baby FACES) dataset, secondary analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, mean difference tests, and Chi-square tests with sampling weights applied. Results: Results showed that 29% of EHS programs reported no centers implementing CoC practices within their programs, and 57% of programs reported all of their centers implemented CoC. The 57% of EHS programs implementing CoC had greater stability of their administrative staff. Results further showed that during EHS, 29 and 34% of children experienced no or one teacher change, respectively, while 37% of children experienced two to six teacher changes. Child and family characteristics were generally not associated with children's stability of care in EHS. Conclusions: CoC is not uniformly implemented across EHS programs, and many children experience multiple teacher changes in center-based EHS programs.
Descriptors: Early Intervention, Early Childhood Education, Infants, Toddlers, Child Care Centers, Program Effectiveness, Preschool Teachers, Family Characteristics, Student Characteristics, Children, Preschool Education, Experience, Labor Turnover
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2123/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A