Caregiver‐Parent Relations in Daycare: Testing the Buffer Hypothesis

Abstract

This study was designed to test the ‘buffer’ hypothesis in caregiver‐parent relationships, predicting that parents will seek out contact with caregivers primarily in response to negative daycare situations. Seventy‐seven daycare parents were presented with a set of short vignettes depicting positive and negative child‐related situations in daycare and at home. The parents were asked to indicate in writing, in an open‐ended format, if and how they would respond to each situation. Parents’ responses were then inspected for rates of spontaneous caregiver inclusion. Results revealed that, as hypothesized, parents reported most caregiver inclusions in negative daycare situations compared to other daycare and home situations. Additionally, parents generally evaluated their relations with caregivers as positive but did not include caregivers in their social support networks. The implications of these findings for the caregiver‐parent relations and child care quality are discussed.

Keywords:

• Daycare
• caregiver
• parent
• relationships