Measuring interaction quality between parents and professionals and its relation to preschool characteristics

Abstract

Due to a lack of adequate measures, little is known about the quality of parent-preschool communication. The present study presents a new observational tool for measuring interaction quality between parents and professionals during child drop-off. The sample consists of 912 parent-professional dyads in 107 preschools. Results from confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence of construct validity, and results for reliability were good. Regression analyses indicate that professional-child ratio, the qualification of professionals, and the way pedagogical work is organised in the preschool are related to the interaction quality between parents and professionals. The implications of our findings will be discussed in the light of the theoretical background as well as the conceptual framework of the instrument.

Keywords

• Observational tool
• Early childhood education
• Parent-professional partnership
• Interaction quality
• Communication