BIASES IN QUALITY ATTRIBUTION TO MOTHER-CHILD AND CAREGIVER-CHILD INTERACTION

Participants (N = 141) rated videotaped dyadic adult-child interaction s on dimensions of quality. Participants who were informed that they w ere viewing mother-child dyads rated the quality of interactions diffe rently than participants who believed they were watching unrelated car e provider-child dyads. ''Mothers'' were judged more harshly than ''pr oviders'' in the bad and mixed quality segments but not in the good qu ality segments. Questionnaires completed by the participants revealed that participants' sex and own child care experiences influenced attit udes toward child care and maternal employment but did not influence q uality ratings. Potential explanations for the biases in quality attri bution to maternal and nonmaternal care providers and the possible inv alidity of attitude questionnaires in the detection of these biases ar e discussed.