Attunement between Parents and Professional Caregivers: A Comparison of Childrearing Attitudes in Different Child-Care Settings

In a survey of a national sample (n = 568 children) of parents and nonparental caregivers from four types of child care—day care, after-school care, family day care, and babysitter care—we studied the attunement of childrearing attitudes between parents and nonparental caregivers and perceptions of their relationships to one another and to the child from an ecological systems perspective. Parents within the same family were rather consistent in their childrearing attitudes and beliefs, but we found some discontinuities between parents and professional caregivers in their childrearing attitudes and perceptions of the quality of the child-caregiver relationship. Lack of attunement in authoritarian control and support was associated with a lower degree of child well-being. Better communication between parents and caregivers was associated with greater attunement and with a higher degree of child well-being.