Pauline Slot

This study examined the situation of Ukrainian refugee mothers and non-mother caregivers of preschool-aged children (643) who fled to Poland after the Russian invasion in 2022 and who applied for early childhood education and care (ECEC) under the SPYNKA program. Using short versions of screening tools, the study assessed maternal depression and parental stress. Additionally, childrearing beliefs, child adjustment, satisfaction with being in Poland, quality of housing situation and financial-well being were explored. Participants in the study reported significantly elevated levels of depressive symptoms and parental stress compared to international benchmarks, although less severe than observed in clinical populations. In general, the child’s adjustment was evaluated positively, although it varied depending on the mother’s well-being. Key predictors of maternal depression included parental stress, financial insecurity, and lower satisfaction with life in Poland. Child adjustment was positively related to progressive and traditional childrearing beliefs. Factors such as financial wellbeing and quality of housing were strong predictors of maternal and child outcomes at both individual and municipal levels. Findings highlight the importance of comprehensive support for refugee families, underscoring the roles of economic stability, housing quality, and consistent parenting beliefs in promoting psychological resilience and well-being.

We Learn Together is a 20-week, low-cost infant/toddler school-readiness intervention developed to provide instructional content and supportive tools for teachers to be more explicit and intentional in interactions with children to support early development. Short-term effects were established in a previously published real-world effectiveness randomized controlled trial. In the present quasi-experimental study, we examined the extent to which the effects remained approximately 1 year after the intervention. Because the original control group eventually also got the intervention, we compared mandatory municipal language assessment outcomes of 2,327 children in the treatment group to matched nontreatment children. The intervention effect was maintained at similar magnitudes at the 1-year follow-up for oral language skills (effect sizes = 0.09–0.14), and spillover effects were found for rhyming skills (effect size = 0.12).

Research Findings: This study examined whether teacher-child interaction quality varied as a function of type of activity in toddler classrooms in four European countries (Finland, Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal). It also investigated whether specific activity settings, namely levels of adult involvement, use of whole group, and children’s engagement with materials, explained differences in teacher-child interaction quality across activities. Participants were 129 toddler classrooms and their lead teachers, specifically, 28 in the Netherlands, 40 in Finland, 31 in Portugal, and 30 in Poland. Process quality was measured with the CLASS Toddler (La Paro et al., 2012) and the Activity Setting Measure was used to characterize adult levels of involvement, group organization, and children’s engagement with materials. Findings indicated that there were important variations across activities in all countries. Positive associations were found between higher levels of adult facilitation and both Emotional and Educational Support. Other activity settings partially explained differences across activities in interaction quality, although patterns varied by country. Practice or Policy: CLASS scores were conditional on the content and format of the activities. Greater attention to activity types and settings may be a means to increase the precision of quality assessment.

De Nederlandse kinderopvang is een belangrijk opvoedmilieu voor vele kinderen in de voorschoolse periode en de schoolse periode. Recent wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar de Nederlandse en buitenlandse kinderopvang heeft ons meer geleerd over de pedagogische kwaliteit van de kinderopvang, de effecten van kinderopvang op de ontwikkeling van kinderen en de professionalisering van de sector. In dit boek vatten verschillende auteurs van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, Universiteit Leiden, Universiteit Utrecht en de Hogeschool van Amsterdam de laatste inzichten samen in dit groeiende onderzoeksterrein. Centrale thema’s zijn: hoe meten we pedagogische kwaliteit; wat is de kwaliteit van kinderopvang voor baby’s, peuters en kinderen in de basisschool; wat zijn de effecten van opvang op de sociaal-emotionele en cognitieve ontwikkeling; en hoe kunnen we de kwaliteit van de kinderopvang verbeteren? De Nederlandse kinderopvang staat centraal in deze publicatie, maar wordt gepositioneerd ten opzichte van de kinderopvang in het buitenland. De bundel laat zo zien waar de Nederlandse kinderopvang nu staat en ook waar nog hiaten zijn in onze kennis. Het boek is bestemd voor studenten aan pedagogisch-educatieve beroepsopleidingen, studenten pedagogiek en ontwikkelingspsychologie aan universiteiten en diverse professionals in de kinderopvang, brede scholen en integrale kindcentra. Daarnaast is het interessant voor geïnteresseerde ouders en beleidsmakers.

Toddlerhood is characterized by rapid development in several domains, such as language, socio-emotional behavior and emerging math skills all of which are important precursors of school readiness. However, little is known about how these skills develop over time and how they may be interrelated. The current study investigates young children’s development at two time points, with about 7 months in between, assessing their language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills with teacher ratings. The sample includes 577 children from 18 until 36 months of age of 86 childcare classrooms. The results of the autoregressive path analyses showed moderate to strong stability of language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills, although the magnitude of associations was smaller for the latter. The cross-lagged path analyses highlighted the importance of language and socio-emotional skills for development in the other domains. Differential relations were found for the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths depending on gender and age. Language skills appeared a stronger predictor of boys’ socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skill development compared to girls. Girls’ socio-emotional skills predicted growth in math. For boys, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills appeared to be unrelated. Language skills showed stronger relations with the development of math language and numeracy skills for younger children as compared to older children. Also, for older children math language and numeracy skills negatively predicted growth in their socio-emotional skills. The findings provide more insights in how language, math language and numeracy skills and socio-emotional skills co-develop in the early years and as such have important implications for interventions aimed to support children’s development.

There is strong evidence that high quality early childhood programs targeting disadvantaged groups can have lasting benefits and high returns on investment. The evidence for universal programs, however, is less conclusive. The present paper examines the claims of universal and targeted approaches to preventing early education gaps. First, recent findings on the universal unitary early education and care systems in Denmark and Norway are reviewed regarding the educational quality and compensating effects on disadvantaged children. Second, the advantages and disadvantages of targeted approaches are discussed, focusing in particular on the trade-off between cost-effectiveness and aggregated impact on society. Third, the Dutch educational equity policy will be analyzed as a case in point to illustrate the dilemmas, contradictions and paradoxes of equity policy pertaining to targeted and universal approaches. Finally, as a synthesis of the findings, two complementary approaches are outlined: a universal within targetedand a targeted within universalapproach.

This cross-national study involved 56 toddler classrooms in Poland and the Netherlands. A cluster analysis was conducted to identify classroom profiles based on observed quality and these were compared regarding structural (group size and children-to-teacher ratio) and curriculum (e.g. pre-academics and pretend play) characteristics. In total, 224 video clips were evaluated with the CLASS Toddler and 130 teachers reported on structural and curriculum aspects. Research Findings: The findings for both countries showed moderate to high emotional support and low to moderate support for learning; the pattern of self-reported provision of activities was shaped alike. Three quality profiles were distinguished: i) high positive climate and support for learning, ii) overall low quality, iii) high emotional and low educational support. Overall, favorable structural conditions and a balanced curriculum including a broad range of activities were associated with highest process quality. Practice or Policy: A variety of different activities and high levels of developmentally stimulating interactions in an overall positive and warm classroom climate can support toddlers’ broad development and learning. Professional development and a center’s pedagogical policy and vision can play an important role in improving quality and implementing age-appropriate play and activities when an official curriculum is lacking.

Is it possible to distinguish different organizational designs of childcare centers? If so, do different organizational designs differ in diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy? This study explores in a qualitative case study amongst thirteen childcare centers on their design and strategy. More specifically, are attention for differences in ethnicity, color and social-economic backgrounds of staff, clients and children (diversity) and efforts to ensure sense of belonging and uniqueness (inclusion) of everyone involved part of the organizational strategy? By interviewing location managers, information on organizational strategies, design and D&I strategy was obtained. Analysis indicates the existence of different D&I strategies, which are related to different organizational designs, in accordance with characteristics from a configurational organization theory. D&I strategy in organizational strategy and design was found mainly as a ‘multicultural-loving’ strategy in most expensive market-oriented childcare centers, and mainly out of necessity embedded in cheapest public childcare centers. However, D&I strategy was also related to client diversity, showing segregation and inequality. This exploration provides questions for further research on organizational designs and its relation to D&I strategy at different organizational levels.