The purpose of this study was to explore the factors related to maltreatment in daycare settings as perceived by childcare workers, and the involvement that childcare workers who had engaged in maltreatment were aware of to build trusting relationships with children. Six childcare workers were divided into two groups according to their years of experience, and focus group interviews were conducted. The narratives were then qualitatively analyzed.Consequently, we generated the following conceptual categories related to maltreatment:“perceived maltreatment,” “risk factors for maltreatment,” “preventive factors in childcare workers,” and “organizational preventive factors”. We also generated the following categories related to building trusting relationships: “basic attitudes and involvement,” “emotionally esponsive involvement with each child,” “social and emotional development,” and “trust from parents”. In the group with many narratives about the perception of maltreatment, there were few narratives about the prevention factors of childcare workers and organizations. Categories related to the building trusting relationships were common to both groups. Although childcare workers were aware of their responsive involvement with each child in building trusting relationships, they did not rule out the possibility of maltreatment due to dysfunctional preventive factors or a combination of multiple risks.

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