Background

Quality early childhood education (ECE) sets the foundation for children’s healthy development. Families make choices regarding the ECE options available to them, and families who desire smaller, more personal, flexible, and less expensive options, often select family child care (FCC) providers over center-based care. In addition, trending research in the United States indicates that there is a decline of FCC providers leading to a gap in the available resources for families.

Objective

This study explored the experiences of family child care providers regarding the challenges and benefits of their profession.

Methods

Two focus groups (N = 27) comprised of licensed and unlicensed FCC providers were conducted to understand their perspectives on the perceived challenges and benefits of their work.

Results

Using Bromer and Korfmacher’s conceptual model of high-quality support, we conducted a thematic analysis and found providers identified several challenges including: feeling uncomfortable in their home, payment and scheduling issues, frustration with parents, limited resources, and role conflicts. Providers also described strategies for managing their family childcare program including utilizing critical early childhood education learning strategies with children, separating personal and work spaces, using contracts, and the importance of networking with other professionals. Providers also shared benefits of FCC for the children in their care, themselves, and their own families.

Conclusions

The findings align with Bromer and Korfmacher’s (2017) conceptual model and suggest a need for networking opportunities to provide information and support amongst FCC providers, improved resource sharing, more accessible funding opportunities, and the need for business training tools.

中文翻译：

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家庭育儿支持与实施：提供者视角下的当前挑战与策略

背景

优质的幼儿教育（ECE）为儿童的健康发展奠定了基础。家庭可以选择关于他们可以使用的ECE选项，而那些希望拥有更小，更个性，更灵活且更便宜的选项的家庭，通常会选择家庭托儿服务（FCC）提供者，而不是基于中心的托儿服务。此外，美国的趋势研究表明，FCC提供商的数量下降，导致家庭可用资源的缺口。

客观的

这项研究探讨了家庭托儿服务提供者在其职业挑战和收益方面的经验。

方法

进行了两个由FCC提供者和许可者组成的焦点小组（N = 27），以了解他们对他们认为的工作挑战和收益的看法。

结果

使用Bromer和Korfmacher的高质量支持的概念模型，我们进行了主题分析，发现提供者发现了几个挑战，包括：对自己的住所感到不舒服，付款和日程安排问题，对父母的沮丧，有限的资源以及角色冲突。提供者还描述了管理家庭育儿计划的策略，包括与孩子一起利用关键的早期儿童教育学习策略，分隔个人和工作空间，使用合同以及与其他专业人员建立联系的重要性。提供者还为孩子们，他们自己以及自己的家人分享了FCC的好处。

结论

这些发现与Bromer和Korfmacher（2017）的概念模型相吻合，并表明需要网络机会在FCC提供商之间提供信息和支持，改善资源共享，提供更多可用资金的机会以及对业务培训工具的需求。