Abstract Background Partnerships between families and early care and education (ECE) professionals are important for child, family, and teacher wellbeing. The Cocaring Relationship Questionnaire (CRQ) captures this partnership via four dimensions: namely support, endorsement, agreement, and undermining, validated in the U.S. context only. The lack of validation evidence from other countries hinders its applicability and prevents international comparisons, all needed to better support ECE professionals and families. Objective This study sought to validate a short form of the Cocaring Relationship Questionnaire (S-CRQ) among Finnish parents having a child in ECE. Moreover, we examine cross-cultural differences and psychometric properties of the dimensions of S-CRQ across parents within Finnish and U.S. contexts. Methods We utilize data from a Finnish sample of 293 parents with 3–6-year-old children in ECE classrooms, and a U.S. sample of 90 parents with children in infant and/or toddler ECE classrooms. Data were analyzed via exploratory structural equation modeling. Results Our analyses produced a 3-factor model including the dimensions of Endorsement, Support, and Disunity that showed strong psychometric properties and mostly similar factor structure across the samples. Also, concurrent and discriminant validity of S-CRQ in relation to parent-child relationship scale was supported. Factor means were similar between the countries. Conclusions Findings validated previously identified dimensions of Endorsement and Support and suggested that a 3-factor model may provide a psychometrically stronger way to assess cocaring relationships across different cultural contexts. This has also important implications for enhancing our conceptual understanding of the essential elements within family-ECE partnerships.
Räikkönen et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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