2006 Volume 44 Issue 2 Pages 246-256
The purpose of this paper is to measure childcare persons' efficacy in developing young children's "human relationships" as a part of the contents of childcare. It also reveals a new multidimensional scale that can be used to improve the quality of childcare and sustain that quality. At first, as a preliminary investigation, 64 senior childcare persons were questioned to determine what abilities they believed childcare persons should develop to foster "human relationships." Secondly, 378 childcare persons and 258 pre-school teachers were questioned using an evaluation questionnaire employing a 7-point scale rating of human relationship development efficacy regarding 79 items. The result of factor analysis yielded 5 factors, and 25 items were selected carefully as items for the measurement and evaluation (I named CPE-HR25). Finally, a practical model was developed based on the factors, and ways to use this new multidimensional scale are suggested.