There is consensus about the positive effects of high quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) on children’s development, particularly for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. However, limited knowledge exists on the access to quality in ECEC in a universal context. This study investigates potential socioeconomic selection into ECEC of higher structural quality in the context of a universal, heavily subsidized, and regulated system in Norway, intended to provide equal access to high quality ECEC. Furthermore, we explore the impact of SES and structural quality in ECEC on student-teacher relationship quality. Our conceptual model takes into account how readily accessible information on different quality aspects is for parents. We use data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study linked with teacher-reported ECEC quality for children born in 2006–2009 (N 7,226), supplemented by registry data at ECEC and municipality level. We find that higher parental education, and to a lesser degree income, predict child attendance of ECEC with higher structural quality as rated by ECEC teachers. Further, higher parental SES and structural quality (i.e., developmental material, staff competence and stability) predict better student-teacher relationship quality in terms of higher level of closeness and less conflict. These findings suggest that ambitions of universal equal access to high quality ECEC are not entirely realized and more efforts are needed to ensure higher structural quality in ECEC and enhance relationship quality for children from less advantageous socioeconomic backgrounds.

高质量的幼儿教育和照料（ECEC）对儿童发展，特别是对那些社会经济背景较差的儿童的发展具有积极影响已达成共识。但是，在普遍情况下，关于ECEC中获得质量的知识有限。这项研究调查了在挪威普遍，高额补贴和受监管的制度背景下，向更高结构质量的ECEC的潜在社会经济选择，旨在为人们提供平等获得高质量ECEC的机会。此外，我们探索了ECEC中的SES和结构质量对师生关系质量的影响。我们的概念模型考虑了不同质量方面的信息对于父母的可用性。我们使用来自挪威母亲的数据 父亲和儿童队列研究与教师报告的2006-2009年出生的儿童ECEC质量相关（N 7,226），并由ECEC和市政一级的注册表数据进行了补充。我们发现，较高的父母教育程度和较低的收入水平可以预测ECEC的儿童出勤率，并具有ECEC教师所评价的较高的结构质量。此外，较高的父母SES和结构质量（即，发展材料，员工能力和稳定性）预示着更高的亲密程度和更少的冲突，会带来更好的师生关系质量。这些发现表明，普遍平等地获得高质量的ECEC的抱负尚未完全实现，需要更多的努力来确保ECEC的结构质量更高，并提高社会经济背景较差的儿童的关系质量。