Infant–Mother and Infant–Caregiver Emotional Relationships: Process Analyses of Interactions in Three Contemporary Childcare Arrangements.

Emotional relationships in infant–mother dyads in families where mothers provided full-time childcare were compared with those of families where mothers used in-home childcare providers and family childcare providers (N = 245). Infant relationships with childcare providers were also studied. Emotional relationships were adequate in all three childcare arrangements, but infant–mother dyads in in-home childcare arrangements displayed healthier emotional relationships than infant–mother dyads in mother care arrangements; no differences in the health of emotional relationships with infants emerged among the three types of childcare providers (mother care, in-home childcare, family childcare). Infant–mother dyads in in-home childcare arrangements also displayed healthier emotional relationships than infant–in-home childcare caregiver dyads, but infant–mother and infant–caregiver dyads were comparable in family childcare families. Emotional relationships in infant–mother and infant–caregiver dyads were not correlated, regardless of the type of childcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]