Understanding Threats to Young Children’s Green Space Access in Unlicensed Daycare Centers in Japan

Access to green space (GS) is vital for children’s health and development, including during daycare. In Japan, deregulation to alleviate daycare shortages has created a new category of so-called unlicensed daycare centers (UDCs) that often lack dedicated GS. UDCs rely on surrounding GS, including parks, temples and university grounds, but reports of conflicts highlight the precarity of children’s well-being in a rapidly aging country. Knowledge about GS access in Japanese UDCs remains scarce. Our mail-back survey (n = 173) of UDCs and online survey (n = 3645) of parents investigated threats to GS access during daycare across 14 Japanese cities. Results suggest that UDCs use a variety of GS and aim to provide daily access. Caregivers are vital in mediating children’s access, but locally available GS diversity, quality and quantity as well as institutional support were perceived as lacking. Parents did not rank GS high among their priorities when selecting daycare providers, and showed limited awareness of conflicts during GS visits. Implications of this study include the need for caregivers and parents to communicate and collaborate to improve GS access, and the importance of strong public investment into holistically improving GS diversity, quality and quantity from the perspective of public health and urban planning.

Early Childhood Moral Intelligence raised by Grandmother, Household Assistant, and Daycare Provider

Children do not only need intelligence in the academic field but also in interacting with others in accordance with the prevailing moral norms in society. Intelligence is influenced by parenting. In Indonesia, parenting of working parents’ families is usually carried out by grandmothers, household assistants, and daycare providers. This study aims to analyze differences in the moral intelligence of children raised by grandmothers, household assistants, and daycare providers. A total of 208 children aged 5-6 years (106 boys and 102 girls) in the city of Semarang, who were willing and approved by parents, were involved in this study. The children’s moral intelligence score in this study was obtained through storytelling test techniques presented by the researcher verbally, considering that early childhood children cannot read fluently. Data analysis techniques used descriptive analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the help of SPSS 20.0 for Windows. The results of this study differed from previous studies in that there is no difference in the moral intelligence of children aged 5-6 years in the city of Semarang that is raised by grandmothers, household assistants, and daycare providers. Based on the results of the study it can be concluded that the roles of grandmothers, household assistants, and daycare providers are no different in fostering moral intelligence in early childhood. The level of moral intelligence of early childhood can also be influenced by the individual, age, social interaction, education, and the context of the situation. Discusses the moral intelligence of young children who are cared for by grandmothers, household assistants, and daycare providers

Creation of a Collaborative Disaster Preparedness Video for Daycare Providers: Use of the Delphi Model for the Creation of a Comprehensive Disaster Preparedness Video for Daycare Providers

ObjectiveEight million American children under the age of 5 attend daycare and more than another 50 million American children are in school or daycare settings. Emergency planning requirements for daycare licensing vary by state. Expert opinions were used to create a disaster preparedness video designed for daycare providers to cover a broad spectrum of scenarios.MethodsVarious stakeholders (17) devised the outline for an educational pre-disaster video for child daycare providers using the Delphi technique. Fleiss κ values were obtained for consensus data. A 20-minute video was created, addressing the physical, psychological, and legal needs of children during and after a disaster. Viewers completed an anonymous survey to evaluate topic comprehension.ResultsA consensus was attempted on all topics, ranging from elements for inclusion to presentation format. The Fleiss κ value of 0.07 was obtained. Fifty-seven of the total 168 video viewers completed the 10-question survey, with comprehension scores ranging from 72% to 100%.ConclusionEvaluation of caregivers that viewed our video supports understanding of video contents. Ultimately, the technique used to create and disseminate the resources may serve as a template for others providing pre-disaster planning education. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:123–127)

Beliefs of Mothers, Nannies, Grandmothers and Daycare Providers Concerning Childcare1

With the greater inclusion of women in the job market, the division of childcare has become increasingly more common. This paper’s aim was to analyze potential differences among distinct profiles of caregivers regarding the valuation of Keller’s parenting systems. A total of 120 caregivers (mothers, grandmothers, nannies and daycare educators) of children younger than one year of age participated in a semi-structured interview. Significant differences were found among the caregivers in regard to the importance they assigned to the different systems: face-to-face, body stimulation and basic care. Education also significantly influenced the valorization of face-to-face and basic care systems. The conclusion is that the caregivers presented a mixed parental style, both distal, enabling the experience of autonomy and separation, and proximal, valuing greater interpersonal relationships. This study sought to contribute to understanding the trajectories used to the development of self when different actors are involved in childcare.

The Communicative Management of Emotional Display Expectations by In-Home Daycare Providers

This study responds to three gaps in the research regarding emotional labor: First, research has tended to privilege the structural forces influencing emotional labor while giving minimal attention to agency. Second, research on emotional labor has privileged work in traditional organizations, foregoing the possibility that owner-operators of small businesses (such as in-home daycare providers) experience the demands of emotional labor. Third, the emotional labor research has examined primarily short-term contexts. The current research reports the results of an interview-based study designed to explore how the participants in a long-term relational context (in-home daycare providers) communicatively manage the emotional display expectations of parents of children in their care. The themes that emerged from the data—structural strategies, interactional strategies, and individual strategies—represent communicative means that in-home daycare providers used to manage the emotional display expectations of parents. The study concludes by discussing the merit of considering the existence of and need to explore further emotional labor in nontraditional organizations such as owner-operated and in-home businesses.