Informal caregivers (family, friends, and neighbors) spend many hours each week with the children in their care and can have a significant impact on the children’s social-emotional and academic development. Unfortunately, many informal caregivers lack the knowledge of how to do so. We conducted a qualitative 2-year study to investigate informal caregivers’ motivations, assets, and needs. The caregivers received text messages to help them support child development. In Year 1, we used interviews to better understand the needs of informal caregivers and potential opportunities to scaffold their interactions with the children. In Year 2, we expanded the program and invited informal caregivers to complete a survey to extend what we learned in Year 1. Both kin and non-kin informal caregivers are highly motivated to support children’s social and academic development and have adequate material resources to provide enriching educational environments for the children. However, we find that informal caregivers often lack information on useful practices to support child development. The text messages helped informal caregivers to overcome both informational and behavioral barriers to caregiving and supporting child development.

中文翻译：

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接触无联系的照顾者：使用短信教育计划更好地了解如何支持非正式的照顾者在儿童发展中的作用

非正式的照顾者（家人，朋友和邻居）每周在孩子身上花费很多时间，可能会对孩子的社交情感和学业发展产生重大影响。不幸的是，许多非正式的护理人员缺乏如何做的知识。我们进行了为期两年的定性研究，以调查非正式护理人员的动机，资产和需求。照顾者收到短信，以帮助他们支持儿童成长。在第一年，我们通过访谈来更好地了解非正式照料者的需求以及支持他们与孩子互动的潜在机会。在第二年，我们扩展了该计划，并邀请非正式的看护者完成一项调查，以扩展我们在第一年中学到的知识。亲属和非亲属的非正式照料者都非常积极地支持儿童的社会和学术发展，并拥有足够的物质资源来为儿童提供丰富的教育环境。但是，我们发现非正式的看护者通常缺乏有关支持儿童发展的有用做法的信息。短信帮助非正式的看护人克服了在照料和支持儿童成长方面的信息和行为障碍。