GENERATIONS
TOGETHER'S

COMPLEMENTARY BEHAVIORS OF OLDER AND YOUNGER CHILD CARE PROVIDERS:

A Research and Dissemination Project

The project will increase child care practitioners' awareness and understanding of the value of age diversity among caregivers, and illustrate the unique contributions which older adult caregivers can make in a child care setting. The information generated by the study will enable practitioners to effectively utilize the skills of older adults, and to understand how their behaviors may complement the contributions of younger caregivers.

To make this information available, the project has two components: 1) a descriptive study that will report on the complementary behaviors of older adult and younger adult caregivers, and 2) the preparation and dissemination of an Instructional Package (a manual and video) for child care practitioners that will enable them to enhance the quality of care they provide by successfully integrating older adults as caregivers into their centers. The production of the video is being funded through a separate grant from the AT&T Family Care Development Fund.

It is our pleasure as Principal Investigators and Program Manager to share the development and leadership of this exciting project with academic partners at six national host sites: Yale University, New Haven, CT; Wheelock College, Boston, MA: Washburn University, Topeka, KS; Oakton Community College, Des Plaines, IL; The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, CO; and the University of Pittsburgh. At each of these host sites, observers will collect data from three preschool programs where older adults and younger staff are working together in an intergenerational staffing relationship. In order to develop a detailed description of the intergenerational interactions, data will be collected from four sources: anecdotal observations, ratings on the Arnett Scale of Teacher Sensitivity; semi-structured interviews with each participant; and a questionnaire to obtain background information about the child care centers.

The host site coordinators, working with field site observers, will complete and submit the observations, rating scales, interviews, and questionnaires by the summer of 1998. The research team has already begun to analyze the data, and this task will be continued through the summer.

The final task for the research team is the preparation of the Instructional Package consisting of a manual and videotape intended to promote the concept of intergenerational child care and to help child care practitioners develop intergenerational caregiving teams. This Package will provide concrete information about the value of creating and maintaining an effective age-diverse staff that benefits children and their families. It will address the issue of consistency in child care staffing, the human need across the life course for interpersonal relationships and physical interactions, and also look at how family systems in today's environment could benefit from intergenerational connections. The practical manual will link the project's significant findings with implications for staff development.

The production of the 15-minute documentary-style video is separately funded by the AT&T Family Care Development Fund. It will include interactions between older and younger caregivers and the children in their classrooms, interviews with key adults who can describe the benefits of intergenerational staffing, and commentary by the researchers highlighting implications of the study findings. The Family Care Development Fund has also agreed to fund a portion of the dissemination effort by distributing copies of the Instructional Package to AT&T employees who are child care consumers, helping them understand and promote intergenerational child care practices.

In addition to this special effort targeting parents, the manual and companion video will be presented to leaders in the field of early childhood education through national professional organizations such as at the National Association for the Education of Young Children's annual conference. Notices about the research report, practitioner's manual, and video will be featured in their newsletters and other publications wherever possible. Announcements and flyers will be sent to state, regional and local leaders in the child care and aging fields. An article summarizing the study findings will be submitted to journals for publication. The manual and research report will be available through ERIC, and excerpts will be displayed on the Generations Together Internet web site.

As we proceed with our efforts to increase the productive participation of older adults in child care, we welcome any suggestions or input you may have regarding the kind of information that may be significant to the child care field, the content of the Instructional Package, or the dissemination of project outcomes.

newmans@pitt.edu