พัฒนาการเด็กและคุณลักษณะของผู้ดูแลเด็กที่สถานสงเคราะห์เด็กอ่อนรังสิต Child Development and Characteristics of Caregivers in Rangsit Babies’ Home

Abstract

AbstractObjectives: To determine prevalence of child development delay and thecharacteristics of caregivers in Rangsit Babies’ Home. Methods: In thiscross-sectional descriptive study, subjects were children aged of 6 months– 6 years residing in Rangsit Babies’ Home, and all caregivers. Data werecollected using a child development measure namely the DenverDevelopment Screening Tool II (Denver II) (Thai version), andquestionnaires about caregivers’ attributes including 1) demographics, 2)performance satisfaction, 3) attitude toward childcare job, 4) knowledge onchild development and 5) childcare performance. Scores of attributes 2 – 4were presented as mean and standard deviation, and associations amongthese attributes were tested using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r), at astatistical significance level of 0.05. Results: Of 206 children, 163 childrenwere eligible. Children with developmental delay were 42.90%. Amongthese, delays in language and in fine motor development were 54.29% and38.57%, respectively. All 37 caregivers agreed to participate. They were allfemale, with an average age of 41.86 years, 37.80% having highschool/vocational school diploma, 45.90% being married, an average familymonthly income of 13,297.78 baht, 43.20% working more than 10 years,and 67.60% taking care of 20 – 30 children. Caregivers reported highlevels of their performance self-satisfaction, attitude and childcareperformance. About two-thirds (67.57%) had a moderate level of childdevelopment knowledge (xˉ = 29.49). Performance satisfaction wassignificantly positively correlated with attitude (r = 0.43, P = 0.008).However, significant correlations between childcare performance andperformance satisfaction, attitude and knowledge were not found (P >0.05). Conclusion: Number of children in Rangsit Babies’s Home withdevelopmental delay was considerably high, where delays in language andin fine motor development should be highly concerned. This calls for urgenthelp. Organization development is also needed to enhance caregivers worksatisfaction and attitude towards the childcare job.Keywords: child development, child caregiver, babies’ home