Caregiver-mother partnership behavior and the quality of caregiver-child and mother-child interactions

Parent-caregiver communication, particularly concerning the behavior and ex periences of the child, is a means of linking the home and child-can contex ts of the child's experience and enriching the caregiver's and parent's cap acity to provide supportive and sensitive care of the child. The Parent-Car egiver Partnership Scale was administered to 53 mothers of 3-year-old child ren and to the children's primary caregivers in child-care centers (n = 20) and less formal child-care settings (n = 33) to examine relations of mothe r-caregiver communication about the child to the quality of caregiver-child and mother-child interactions. More communication between mother and careg iver about the child as reported by both mothers and caregivers was signifi cantly related to more sensitive and supportive caregiver-child interaction s in child care, even after controlling for the mother's and caregiver's ch ildrearing beliefs that were related to partnership behavior and the qualit y of child care. The quality of mother-child interaction was significantly associated with the mother's communication with her child-care provider abo ut her child. After controlling for maternal childrearing beliefs, mothers who engaged in more partnership behavior with their providers were more sup portive and sensitive with their children.