Assessing quality in family child care homes using an index derived from a telephone survey

The purpose of the study was to learn whether an index derived from a telephone survey from the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium was as predictive of quality in family child care homes as assessed by the Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS; Harms & Clifford, 1989) and the Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS; Arnett, 1989). The index was used to examine the relationships between the licensing status, regulatable characteristics, as well as non-regulatable characteristics and the family child care quality as measured by the FDCRS and the CIS. The function of characteristics that cannot be regulated was examined. Correlations revealed statistically significant relationships between the index and the FDCRS and the CIS scores. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the non-regulatable characteristics partially mediate the licensing status as well as the regulatable characteristics in predicting quality in family child care homes as measured by the FDCRS and the CIS and that licensing was the single most important factor that predicted the quality of family child care homes in this study. The index established from this research may serve as guidelines/criteria for policy makers when making decisions on regulations for family child care homes. In addition, the index may serve as a screening tool for parents to identify high-quality family child care homes when making decisions for child care arrangements. Implications for future research in assessing quality in family child care homes using the index are discussed