Voices of Child Care Providers: An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Policy Changes

This dataset is the result of a qualitative study exploring the impact on child care providers of recent changes in government policies such as the 2014 reauthorization of the Child Care Development Block Grant and the increasing number of state-funded pre-kindergarten programs. Although there is much research on the benefits of quality care for children, and some research on the struggles of parents seeking high quality care, few elicit the perspective of this crucial work force. Six focus groups were conducted with a total of 49 providers. Two groups each, one with center-based providers and one with home-based providers, were held in an urban, suburban, and rural location. Focus group data were supplemented with data from interviews with six rural providers, for a total study sample of 55. All interviews and focus groups were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a constant comparative method and coding for emergent and sensitizing concepts

本数据集系一项定性研究的结果，旨在探究政府近期政策变化，如2014年儿童保育发展补助金法案的重新授权以及州资助的学前项目数量增加，对儿童保育服务提供者产生的影响。尽管关于优质儿童保育带来的益处的研究众多，以及关于寻求高品质保育的家长所面临的挑战的研究亦有所涉及，但鲜有研究能够反映这一关键工作群体的视角。研究者共进行了六次焦点小组讨论，参与人数总计49人。每组焦点小组由基于中心的服务提供者和基于家庭的服务提供者组成，分别在城市、郊区和乡村地区进行。焦点小组数据得到了对六位乡村服务提供者进行访谈数据的补充，使得总研究样本量达到55人。所有访谈和焦点小组讨论均进行了逐字记录，并采用持续比较法及编码技术对涌现的和敏感的概念进行了分析。