• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.123-136
• /
• 2004

The purposes of this study were to investigate the qualities of infant day-care centers and the caregivers' interactions with infants. Forty-six day-care centers from Seoul, Daejeon, and Daegu were enrolled in this study. Two kinds of methods were used for data collection; one was the Assessment Scale for Infant/Toddler Care Center developed by Choi and the other was the Qualitative Rating Scale for Caregiver used in the NICHD Early Child Care Project. Frequency, percentile, Crollbach's, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation were calculated for data analysis. Qualities on 5 factors of infant day-care centers were ranged from 3.44∼4.35, the highest with health managing and the lowest with support system in the Likert 5-point scales. Sensitivity, developmental stimulation and positive regard to child, which are the caregiver's positive interactions with infants were rated minimally or usually characteristic. In addition, intrusiveness, detachment, negative regard to child and flatness, which are negative interactions with infants were rated never or minimally characteristic. Finally, some suggestions for good quality and facilitation of infant care were made.