UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Family Child Care: Characteristics, Relationships, and Parent Outcomes(2022) Jimenez Parra, Laura Fernanda; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers employing qualitative methods consistently emphasize the close relationship between parents and providers as a unique feature of family child care (FCC) arrangements that is often missed in quality improvement initiatives (Ang et al., 2017; Hooper et al., 2019). Strong parent-provider relationships may be a critical conduit to support positive provider, parent, and child outcomes (Blasberg et al., 2019; Forry et al., 2012). However, little is known about how these constructs operate in FCC settings. I examined the association between FCC providers’ characteristics, the quality of the parent-provider relationship, and how these connections relate to parental involvement and well-being. My results revealed that FCC providers’ educational attainment and the pleasure they derived from their profession were positively associated with the quality of the relationship they formed with families in their programs. However, these relationships were not found to be related to FCC providers’ years of experience, feelings of burnout and stress, and professional development. Further, parents’ perceptions of this relationship were related to better parental mental health outcomes. Yet, there were mixed associations between parents’ perceptions of the parent-provider relationship and their engagement in their children’s education. Findings of this study highlight the need to understand the distinct aspects of quality in FCC settings. FCC offers unique features, such as closer parent-provider relationships, that need to be examined to successfully promote high-quality care in FCC homes and to inform the early childhood field about mechanisms that support positive outcomes in FCC providers and the families they serve.Item "It's like we're raising that child together:" Parents, center-based child care providers, and the work of creating relationships(2011) Speirs, Katherine Elizabeth; Anderson, Elaine A; Roy, Kevin M; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Today, most children experience some form of non-parental child care before entering school. The popularity of child care has led scholars to investigate its impact on children's development. In particular, researchers and theorists agree that children benefit when parents and providers form partnerships that include frequent and constructive communication. However, less is known about how parents and providers establish and maintain partnerships. I used a qualitative approach to examine how parents of young children and center-based child care providers understand the parent and provider roles and establish and maintain relationships. During a year of field work at two privately-owned child care centers, I generated 112 sets of field notes from participant observations and conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 parents and 17 child care center staff members. Using both observations and interviews allowed me to witness parent-provider relationship formation firsthand and explore parents' and providers' perspectives. Additionally, generating several different types of data from multiple sources allowed for triangulation and a rigorous research design. I used a modified grounded theory approach to analyze my data. My findings suggest that parents and providers saw five components to the provider role: physical caregiving, emotional care, teaching, fostering development, and family support. The parent role had two main components. Child care providers and parents expected that parents would be involved in the child care center through the donation of goods, money and/or time. In addition to involvement in the center, parents also felt responsible for monitoring and directing the providers' caregiving. I identified five distinct parent-provider relationship types: basic familiarity, working relationships, partnerships, independent relationships, and discordant relationships and present a model that explains how these relationships are established and maintained. Research and theory suggest that children benefit when parents and providers form partnerships. However, I found that establishing and maintaining partnerships requires time, effort, and a specific skill set from parents and providers as well as opportunities for regular communication. Class-based patterns emerged from my data which suggest that middle-class parents may be in a better position to form partnerships with their providers. Therefore, it may be unrealistic to expect all parents and providers to work collaboratively. Rather, the benefits of alternative relationship types should be explored. Implications for future research, early care and education programming and the design of measures to assess the quality of parent-provider relationships are discussed.Item Learning How to Navigate U.S. Society with Young Children: Experiences of Immigrant Mothers Utilizing Early Childhood Care and Education(2011) Vesely, Colleen Kirkwood; Roy, Kevin M; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nearly one in four children in the United States are children of immigrants (Fortuny, Hernandez, & Chaudry, 2010), and these children are the fastest growing segment of children in the country (U.S. Census, 2000 as cited in Matthews & Ewen, 2006b). Given this growth, grounded in Berry's (1997) acculturation framework and ecocultural theory (Weisner, 1997) , this study investigated the lived experiences of immigrant mothers with young children as these mothers adjusted to being parents in the U.S. An ethnographic approach was utilized to explore the experiences of 41 immigrant mothers living in Washington, DC and Virginia who were engaged with the ECCE system. Consequently, in-depth interviews as well as observations were conducted with immigrant mothers living in northern Virginia and Washington, DC, hailing from both Latin America (n= 22) and Africa (n=19). Data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach in which three waves of coding were conducted: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings from this study indicate that mothers' immigration stories, including, their reasons for coming to a new host society, their journey and finally, adjustment to life in the new country, shaped their expectations of parenting in the U.S. Mothers' in this study negotiated parenting ideas and practices from the U.S. and their home countries to create a new social framework for parenting in the U.S. that was distinct from parenting in their COOs and the U.S. Finally, a process model emerged from the data reflecting these immigrant mothers' navigation of the ECCE system. It illustrated that mothers drew upon a variety of social, organizational, and geographic connections to find ECCE, sometimes faced obstacles to securing ECCE, and ultimately were able to develop important social capital as a result of utilizing ECCE. The findings from this study will provide practitioners, policy makers, and researchers with a greater understanding of how immigrant families with young children adjust to life in the U.S., experience parenting, and how they navigate the U.S. ECCE system. This knowledge will contribute to creating the most effective programs, policies, and studies to support immigrant families.Item The Impact of Child Care Subsidies on Child Care Problems, Child Care-Related Work Disruptions, and Mothers' Desire to Switch Care(2007-06-15) Forry, Nicole DeSanctis; Hofferth, Sandra L.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Work requirements implemented through welfare reform have led to a focus on moving mothers into employment. As a consequence, the labor force participation rates of single mothers have increased dramatically in the last decade, increasing the importance of child care policies. Although numerous studies have examined the impact of child care subsidies in assisting parents to obtain employment, very few have examined the impact of subsidies on maintaining employment. This study sought to determine whether families with a child care subsidy differed from families without a subsidy on three child care-specific variables assumed to affect a mother's ability to maintain employment: child care problems, child care-related work disruptions, and a desire to switch care arrangements. The mediating roles of child care costs and type of care on the relationships between child care subsidies and these variables were also examined. Data for this study come from two samples of low-income single mothers. The first was a study of 40 mothers in a mid-Atlantic county interviewed before and after receiving a child care subsidy. The second was a subsample of 658 mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being study. Data were analyzed via multivariate techniques and path models on both static and dynamic models, including comparing changes by the same parents over time. Receipt of a child care subsidy was found to be a significant predictor of experiencing fewer child care problems and child care-related work disruptions across datasets and using multiple methods. Parents were also less likely to report desiring to switch their care arrangement when they had a child care subsidy compared to when they did not have a subsidy. Finally, the use of formal child care was found to mediate the relationship between child care subsidy status and child care-related work disruptions for parents in one of the samples. Policy and program recommendations for assisting low-income families balance work and family by minimizing experiences with child care-related work disruptions are discussed.Item A Qualitative Analysis of the Experiences and Perspectives of Family Child Care Providers Who Care for Young Children with Disabilities(2006-08-10) Wayne, Tracey Simone; Beckman, Paula J.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Increases in the number of parents in the paid labor force and welfare reform have resulted in more families requiring non-parental child care. Most often this care is provided in environments outside of the child's own home. There is also a trend to promote the inclusion of young children with disabilities in community-based settings. Families of children with disabilities often prefer family child care programs. However, limited research has been conducted on family child care providers who include children with disabilities in their programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of family child care providers who care for young children with disabilities, using the following research questions: (a) What factors encourage family child care providers to accept young children with disabilities? (b) What strategies do family child care providers use to include young children with disabilities? (c) What supports do family child care providers receive while caring for young children with disabilities? (d) What barriers are reported by family child care providers who care for young children with disabilities? A multiple case study design was used. Data collection involved: (a) interviews with licensed family child care providers, parents of children with disabilities and administrators involved in training and licensure; (b) observations of family child care providers; and (c) a review of documents. Case summaries were written for each provider. Then a cross-provider analysis was conducted. All of the providers had some experience or exposure to children with disabilities in the past. They believed that all children were unique and special and demonstrated a positive attitude toward inclusion. Providers engaged in pre-service and in-service disability-related training. Providers and the parents established strong collaborative relationships. Strategies to include the children with disabilities ranged from using specialized equipment to simple modifications. Early childhood special education staff supported the providers in including the children. Other sources of support included membership in associations, as well as smaller informal networks. Barriers reported were related to lack of training opportunities and funding for specialized equipment, the needs of the child with a disability, and factors associated with the business.