砂上, 史子

岩田, 美保

髙橋, 実里

中道, 圭人

SUNAGAMI, Fumiko

IWATA, Miho

TAKAHASHI, Minori

NAKAMICHI, Keito

保育の質（quality of early child education and care）

プロセスの質（process quality）

社会情動的能力（social-emotional competence）

１-２歳児（toddler）

[SUMMARY] The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among the size of the childcare center, the quality of the childcare process, and the development of socio-emotional competence of 1-2-year-old children. A questionnaire survey was conducted on parents of 1-2-year-old children attending the childcare centers and their homeroom teachers. The results were following: (1) “Problem scores on children’s problem behaviors” were negatively correlated with the responsiveness of parents and the household income to children; (2) Children in “large” childcare centers had higher “Problem scores on children’s problem behaviors” than those in “medium” childcare centers; and (3) Children in “large” childcare centers had higher “warm atmosphere” scores than those in “small” childcare centers. These results suggest that household income helps to stabilize the psychological state of the parents, and that the way in which the childcare center teachers cooperate with each other and the number of children the caregivers are responsible for have an effect on these results. In addition, it was indicated that “medium” childcare centers were more effective in improving the quality of childcare than “small” childcare centers and “large” childcare centers.