Early adolescents recollections of their preschool day care experiences
Date
1993
Authors
Markowsky, Jeannie
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Abstract
This study described and analyzed the recollections reported in a semiĀ-structured interview by 60 early adolescent youth, aged 11.5 to 14.5 years (mean age = 13.1, median age = 13.4), of their preschool day care experiences. This study formed a portion of the Victoria Day Care Research Project Follow-up Study (Pence & Goelman, 1991). The participants had originally attended 3 different types of day care: center day care, licensed family day care, and unlicensed family day care. The focus was on the adolescents' world view, utilizing a retrospective account to examine what it was that they took away from this day care experience (the "target" day care).
The results indicated that 73% of the sample remembered the "target" day care, 13% had limited memories, and 13% did not recall the original "target" day care. The three groups varied significantly in terms of type of day care and age. The mean age of those not remembering was a full year younger than the mean age of the group remembering the "target" day care. A higher percentage of the center day care group remembered the day care experience under investigation. The mean age of the center day care group was also significantly older than the mean age of the other two groups.
Thematic analysis of the responses of those participants remembering the "target" day care .{n = 51) described 4 categories embodied in the recollections: environment, activities, relationships and emotions. These themes were analyzed to determine if there was a relationship between the themes and the variables of gender and type of original day care situation. Significant relationships included: fewer centre day care participants reported references to the care provider; more participants from unlicensed family day care reported references to peers; fewer participants from unlicensed family day care made references to the activities or the environment categories; more females reported more recollections in the relationship category than did males; emotions were reported by the fewest individuals and talked about the least; negative emotions were more often reported than positive emotions by participants of both genders and across all 3 day care types.