Citation

Dunn L. Early Child Res. Q. 1993; 8(2): 167-192.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0885-2006(05)80089-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Day care quality assessments can be categorized according to their proximity to children's actual experiences. Distal quality assessments describe experiences potentially available to children, but do not describe actual experiences. Distal quality assessments include structural variables, such as ratio, group size, caregiver characteristics, and global quality assessments such as the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS; Harms & Clifford, 1980). Proximal quality assessments describe the actual events experienced by children in day care settings. Proximal quality was defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC; Bredekamp, 1987) guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices and included caregiver goals, strategies, and guidance. The study examined (1) the efficacy of proximal and distal quality in predicting children's development after controlling for family factors, and (2) the validity of using the NAEYC guidelines as a measure of proximal quality. Correlations between the ECERS and proximal quality lent tentative support to the validity of the guidelines. Proximal and distal quality were equally effective in predicting children's development, each predicting two of six forms of development.