Article Summary
Quality Counts: Assessing the Quality of Daycare Services Based on the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development
Choices by Christina Japel, Richard Tremblay, Sylvana CoteIn this edition of Choices, Christina Japel, Richard Tremblay, and Sylvana Côté examine the unique childcare program in Quebec and evaluate it by analyzing the results of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD). As the authors explain, Quebec’s approach to childcare is different than that of most provinces because resources are allocated to service providers rather than families; furthermore, childcare is available at a fixed-fee rate for all children under the age pf four, irrespective of family income. In their research, Japel, Tremblay, and Côté also consider other studies pertaining to the importance of quality in childcare vis-à-vis child development and well-being. These studies, they explain, provided the raison d’être for the QLSCD.
The authors offer a detailed discussion of how they measured the quality of childcare in the Quebec program; in short, they primarily use a system, revised in the late 1990s, known as the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-R). They explain that ECERS-R is designed to determine whether or not a setting is contusive to child development between the ages of one-and-a-half and five years of age. The authors employ the Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDRS) where older children are present (because ECERS-R and FDRS have similar indicators but FDRS account for factors relevant to older children). These systems allows for a final rating between 1 and 7 based on seven indicators (or subscales). As part of the study Japel, Tremblay and Côté also examine the socio-economic factors that influence which children received a particular type of care.
The results to the study are presented based on the type of setting (broken into categories for center based, and for profit, and home based child care environments)and by subscale. Overall Japel, Tremblay and Côté find that 61 percent of the facilities met the minimal requirement (a rating of 3 on the 7 point ECERS-R or FDRS scales), 12 percent were deemed to be inadequate (below 3) and 27 percent were rated as good or excellent (a 5 or above on the appropriate scale). In terms of socio-economic factors affecting care, Japel, Tremblay and Côté find that children in families in the lowest income bracket are less likely to be in childcare. They also discover, however, that children from less privileged backgrounds are more likely to be at inadequate facilities. The authors conclude by offering a number of suggestions they believe will improve the childcare program in Quebec.
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Policy Publication Details
| Author(s): | Christina Japel; Richard Tremblay; Sylvana Cote; | ||
| Publisher: | Institute for Research on Public Policy [ Visit Website ] | ||
| Year Published: | 2005; | Publisher Type: | Research Institute |
| Publicly Available: | Yes | Research Focus: | Provincial; |
| Registration Required: | No | Language: | English |
| Payment Required: | No | Publication Format: | Adobe PDF |
Subjects / Categories:
Policy Articles / Children & Family / Daycare & Childcare
Policy Articles / Children & Family / Daycare & Childcare / 2005
Policy Articles / Children & Family
Keywords / Tags:
Canada; Quebec; childcare; daycare; flat-fee system; quality of care; child-staff interaction; care routines; Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD); Early childhood development; cognitive development; educational activities; home-based;