Effects of Temporary Classroom Transitions in Childcare on Children's Outcomes

描述(由申请人提供)：儿童发展理论表明，幼儿需要在照顾者中保持连续性，才能感到安全并形成依恋。事实上，许多研究已经发现，安全依恋是孩子获得积极结果的发展先行因素。出于这些原因，国家儿童保育组织赞同促进持续照料的政策和做法，并不鼓励将个别儿童或教师临时转移到其他教室以满足比例要求等做法。反对临时课堂过渡的专业建议是基于理论假设的，因为没有实证研究检验临时过渡与儿童结果之间的关系。我们的项目旨在通过检查(1)与临时过渡相关的教师和儿童特征；(2)临时过渡与儿童的社会和认知功能之间的关系；以及(3)护理质量在调节这些关系中所起的作用来填补这一空白。这项研究的一个独特方面是我们跟踪过渡导致的护理质量变化的能力。当个别儿童或教师在白天被转移时，他们离开或进入教室会改变所有相关教室的师生比例、小组规模和教师特征的构成。这就需要在个人-儿童层面上跟踪质量。我们使用了一种创新的数据收集程序，家长在接送时填写签到/签出表，工作人员在他们转移教室或孩子被转移到另一间教室时填写签到表。这将使我们能够估计每个孩子花在每个老师身上的时间的百分比，并计算每个孩子独特的平均幼儿-教师比率和小组规模。我们在儿童个体层面捕捉体验质量差异的能力将使我们能够更好地探索这些差异与儿童发展的关系。这项研究的结果将通过确定临时重新分配与积极或消极结果相关的条件，为从业人员提供指导。我们将回答这样的问题，即过渡是否必然与较差的社会和认知功能有关，或者从质量较低的教室转到较高质量的教室的孩子是否会表现出积极的结果，尽管接受了不同老师的照顾。这将有助于为制定有关课堂过渡的政策提供明智的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child development theory suggests that young children need continuity in caregivers in order to feel secure and form attachments. Indeed, many studies have found that secure attachments serve as developmental antecedents for positive child outcomes. For these reasons, national childcare organizations endorse policies and practices that foster continuity of care and discourage such practices as temporarily moving individual children or teachers into other classrooms to meet ratio requirements. Professional recommendations against temporary classroom transitions are based on theoretical assumptions, as no empirical studies have examined the relationships between temporary transitions and children's outcomes. Our project aims to fill this void by examining (1) the teacher and child characteristics associated with temporary transitions; (2) the relationships between temporary transitions and children's social and cognitive functioning; and (3) the role quality of care plays in mediating those relationships. A unique aspect of this study will be our ability to track changes in quality of care resulting from transitions. When individual children or teachers are moved during the day, their departure from or arrival into a classroom changes the child-teacher ratios, group sizes, and composition of teacher characteristics for all associated classrooms. This necessitates tracking quality at the individual-child level. We used an innovative data collection procedure in which parents filled out sign-in/sign-out sheets at drop-off and pick-up, and staff completed the sheets when they moved classrooms, or when children were moved to another classroom. This will allow us to estimate the percentage of time each child spends with each teacher, and to compute an average child-teacher ratio and group size that is unique to each child. Our ability to capture variation in quality of experience at the individual child-level will allow us to better explore how these differences relate to children's development. The results of this study will provide guidance to practitioners by identifying the conditions under which temporary re-assignments are associated with positive or negative outcomes. We will answer such questions as whether transitions are necessarily associated with poorer social and cognitive functioning, or whether children who move from lower-quality classrooms to higher-quality classrooms can demonstrate positive outcomes, despite receiving care from different teachers. This will help inform sensible approaches to policies regarding classroom transitions.