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Background <p>Emerging research indicates that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments varies throughout the day. However, previous studies have reported inconsistent findings on the association between quality variations and children’s development.</p> Objective <p>The present study employed group-based multi-trajectory modeling, a classroom-centered analytic approach, to investigate how ECEC process quality changes over the course of a morning and how these changes relate to children’s social-emotional outcomes.</p> Methods <p>We tested whether there are groups of classrooms with similar patterns of change in process quality. The sample consisted of 218 preschool classrooms in child care centres in Toronto, Canada. Associations between the identified groups, structural quality and children’s social-emotional outcomes were tested.</p> Results <p>Results revealed three groups of classrooms: <i>Low and Declining</i> (13%), <i>Moderate and Middle</i> (55%), and <i>High and Fluctuating</i> (32%). Educators in <i>Moderate and Middle</i> classrooms had more teaching experience than educators in the other two groups. After controlling for the average quality and child demographic characteristics, children from the <i>Low and Declining</i> group (i.e., the group with the fastest decline in quality) had more emotional problems than children in the other groups.</p> Conclusions <p>The dynamic nature of quality needs to be considered when assessing quality. Classroom-centered approaches are useful in studying the trajectory of classroom quality. The rapidly declining process quality trajectory is arguably the most concerning group and would likely benefit from additional quality improvement supports.</p>

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Declining Classroom Quality in Early Childhood Education Over the Course of a Morning is Associated with Children’s Emotional Problems

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年11月11日

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  • Zhangjing Luo,
  • Samantha Burns,
  • Calpanaa Jegatheeswaran,
  • Michal Perlman

摘要

Background

Emerging research indicates that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) environments varies throughout the day. However, previous studies have reported inconsistent findings on the association between quality variations and children’s development.

Objective

The present study employed group-based multi-trajectory modeling, a classroom-centered analytic approach, to investigate how ECEC process quality changes over the course of a morning and how these changes relate to children’s social-emotional outcomes.

Methods

We tested whether there are groups of classrooms with similar patterns of change in process quality. The sample consisted of 218 preschool classrooms in child care centres in Toronto, Canada. Associations between the identified groups, structural quality and children’s social-emotional outcomes were tested.

Results

Results revealed three groups of classrooms: Low and Declining (13%), Moderate and Middle (55%), and High and Fluctuating (32%). Educators in Moderate and Middle classrooms had more teaching experience than educators in the other two groups. After controlling for the average quality and child demographic characteristics, children from the Low and Declining group (i.e., the group with the fastest decline in quality) had more emotional problems than children in the other groups.

Conclusions

The dynamic nature of quality needs to be considered when assessing quality. Classroom-centered approaches are useful in studying the trajectory of classroom quality. The rapidly declining process quality trajectory is arguably the most concerning group and would likely benefit from additional quality improvement supports.