Maternal perceptions of their infants' daycare

Results are presented from an extensive questionnaire administered to the mothers and caregivers of 40 infants who were in full-time daycare. Four general areas were explored: mother and daycare, mother-child relationship, mother and her work, and mother and family. Although most mothers described the decision to place their child in daycare as a difficult one, most did not feel that daycare had had a negative effective upon their infants. Mothers and caregivers both reported relatively few linkages between the daycare and home environments, with mother-caregiver contact quite limited in duration and content. Further, discrepancies between mother and caregiver perceptions suggested a possible need by mothers to see their infants' experience in more favorable terms. For example, caregivers described infants as being more distressed when first entering daycare than did mothers.

Developmental psychology · Duration (music) · Perception · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Early Childhood Education and Development · Medicine · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology

• Infant day care

  J Conrad Schwarz, Robert G Strickland et al.•Developmental Psychology•1974

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