The role of child care in supporting the emotion regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.03.004Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Child care can serve as a developmental asset for maltreated infants/toddlers.

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    Research is needed on developmentally appropriate practice for this population.

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    Teacher training can be improved to better meet maltreated children's needs.

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    Child care centers can serve as sources of support for high risk families.

Abstract

Infants and toddlers who experience physical abuse and/or neglect are at a severe risk for disruptions to emotion regulation. Recent prevention and treatment efforts have highlighted center-based child care as an important setting for providing support to the needs of these children, as child care centers are already an existing point of entry for reaching high-risk families. Guided by ecological theory, this review draws on the maltreatment and child care literatures to consider the opportunity for child care centers, specifically teacher-child interactions within the classroom, to support the unique regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers. Existing research on the effects of child care for children facing other types of risk, as well as research with maltreated preschool children, provides a foundation for considering the role child care may play for infants and toddlers, whose emotion regulation skills are just emerging. More research is needed regarding teachers' roles in facilitating effective emotional experiences in the classroom that meet the unique needs of maltreated children. Additionally, early childhood teacher training that focuses on infant/toddler mental health and a trauma-informed perspective of care, as well as structuring child care centers as communities of support for high risk families, all may aid child care centers in better serving this vulnerable population.

Section snippets

The scope of infant/toddler maltreatment

Legal definitions of maltreatment vary by state, but the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), as amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, defines maltreatment at a minimum as, “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm,” including neglect, physical abuse, psychological

Theoretical framework

Ecological models of human development (e.g. Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006, Cicchetti et al., 2000) provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the role of multiple caregivers in the development of infant/toddler emotion regulation, the deleterious effect of maltreatment, and the potential buffering impact of teacher caregiving in child care. Ecological models position children at the center of a series of nested systems, conceptualizing development as driven via children's regular

Infant/toddler emotion regulation

Emotion regulation includes the processes and strategies used to manage experiences of emotional arousal and the behavioral expression of emotions to function effectively with others (Calkins, 1994, Eisenberg et al., 2006). The regulatory skills acquired during infancy and toddlerhood facilitate the development of social competence, emotional understanding, peer relations, and empathy in early childhood (Blair et al., 2012, Calkins and Hill, 2006, Eisenberg et al., 2006, Liew, 2012), as well as

The role of child care

High quality child care can be conceptualized as a developmental asset, in which the proximal processes between teachers and children act as a possible compensatory mechanism for the regulatory difficulties of victimized infants and toddlers. Victimized infants and toddlers tend to receive few mental health services in response to maltreatment, or services tend to be disproportionately allocated to older children (Leslie et al., 2000, Stahmer et al., 2005), making existing settings of support,

How can child care better serve maltreated infants and toddlers?

Literature from a variety of areas suggests how child care centers can serve as better developmental assets for the regulatory development of maltreated infants and toddlers. Suggestions such as enhanced teacher training, integration of a trauma-informed perspective of care, structuring child care as a community of support for parents, and supporting policies that encourage collaboration across systems can better position child care within a coordinated network of settings and professionals

New directions

Recent efforts from the U.S. DHHS focus on building more coordinated systems of care by encouraging interagency collaboration between child care (including EHS) and the child welfare system, such as formally establishing joint screening and referral protocols to address family needs, joint referral protocols for child care subsidies and EHS services, and increased child care staff training to recognize the need for referrals to the child welfare system (U.S. Department of Health and Human

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a generous grant from the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being.

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