Caregiver–Parent Relationships in Daycare: A Review and Re-Examination of the Data and Their Implications

Abstract

This paper reviews and examines critically the literature on caregiver–parent relations in daycare centers and family daycare homes. This literature is characterized by attempts to understand (and evaluate) the social changes and accumulating data regarding formal non-relative childcare in terms of the dynamics of informal, familial forms of care. Instead, it is argued that informal and formal care arrangements are qualitatively different, that neither type is inherently superior, and that each needs to be understood in terms of its own unique systemic and contextual characteristics. Viewing the data on formal care arrangements from this perspective, it is proposed that, 1) contrary to current interpretations, caregivers' ambivalent and critical attitudes toward parents are neither surprising nor a risk factor for children. Rather, these attitudes are an inherent component of the consumer/provider structure of the caregiver–parent relationship system and may actually facilitate the caregivers' involvement with the devalued parent's children; b) the high rates of parental satisfaction with daycare reflect neither a wholehearted endorsement, nor an adequate assessment of care quality. Rather, high satisfaction rates are one product of parents' attempts to cope with perceived marketplace constraints. Further, the narrow focus of the satisfaction research to date has also prevented us from adequately understanding parental perceptions of childcare and how they shape pertinent decision making processes; c) the documented low rates of caregiver–parent contact are an inherent feature of the professionalization process in the daycare system and are not a sufficiently useful indicator of the quality of caregiver–parent relationships; research in this area should expand to explore the relationship's potential buffer function.