A daycare center is a space where infants and toddlers are cared for, and a comfortable and safe environment is essential. To this end, childcare teachers are responsible for preparing and maintaining the daycare environment and quickly responding to ...
A daycare center is a space where infants and toddlers are cared for, and a comfortable and safe environment is essential. To this end, childcare teachers are responsible for preparing and maintaining the daycare environment and quickly responding to emergencies that may arise unexpectedly, and these teachers are required to have expertise in safety.
Considering that teachers are the ones who prepare safety education for infants and toddlers to prevent safety accidents that occur in daycare centers, the safety competency and teacher sensitivity of childcare teachers, who are responsible for the normal development and growth of infants and toddlers, are not only crucial in safety practice behavior. Therefore, to improve the safety management ability of infant and toddler teachers and perform safe educational activities, it is necessary to analyze the safety competency, teacher sensitivity, and safety practice behavior level of individual childcare teachers and find ways to improve them.
Therefore, this study examined how the safety competency and teacher sensitivity of childcare teachers responsible for the safety of infants and toddlers in daycare centers affect safety practice behavior, and also the relationship between the safety competency of childcare teachers and safety practice behavior such as environmental management and safety guidance. This study aimed to verify whether teacher sensitivity had a mediating effect.
This study surveyed 317 infant and toddler teachers working at daycare centers.
The collected survey data were statistically processed using SPSS and AMOS 28.0 as follows.
First, frequencies and percentages were calculated to determine the general characteristics of the childcare teachers targeted for the study and internal reliability (Cronbach's α) of the questions was calculated to examine the reliability of the test tool.
A t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to determine whether there were differences in the level of safety competency, teacher sensitivity, and safety practice behavior according to the general characteristics of childcare teachers. When equal variance of groups was not assumed, Differences between groups were verified using the Welch test with degrees of freedom adjusted.
Next, descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to examine the mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis of the measurement variables, and correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the measurement variables.
Lastly, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to verify the central and discriminant validity of the measurement model, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to examine the structural causal relationship between variables and the mediating effect of teacher sensitivity. Significance was verified through bootstrapping.
The research results are as follows.
First, according to the general characteristics of the childcare teachers studied, the proportion of teachers with safety accident experience was higher than the proportion of teachers without safety accident experience. In childcare settings, the experience of safety accidents does not sufficiently lead to safety practice behavior, and it can be predicted that safety accidents will continue to occur. This result suggests that childcare teachers' research and efforts are needed to lead to safety practice behavior actively.
Second, as a result of analyzing the differences between variables according to the general characteristics of childcare teachers, differences in safety competency appeared depending on the experience of the childcare teachers. In teacher sensitivity, infant class teachers had higher teacher sensitivity than preschool teachers. Regarding safety practice behavior, infant class teachers had a higher level of environmental management practice than preschool teachers, and there was no significant difference in the level of safety guidance practice.
Third, there was a significant positive correlation between childcare teachers' safety competency, teacher sensitivity, and safety practice behavior variables. The result emphasizes the need to create a safety culture in daycare centers by encouraging cooperation among teachers, sharing safety-related experiences, and developing a comprehensive and integrated safety education program that improves individual teachers' safety competency and sensitivity.
Fourth, childcare teachers' safety competency and teacher sensitivity have a positive influence on safety practice behavior. Therefore, by creating a safe environment for teachers and providing training and resources that can be used as more practical and practical tools to deliver effective safety guidance, we encourage teachers' voluntary participation in safety management and practice safety competency and sensitivity in the field. We need support to make it work.
Fifth, the safety competency of childcare teachers not only has a positive effect on safety practice behavior but also has a positive influence on safety practice behavior through the mediation of teacher sensitivity, and teacher sensitivity is linked to safety competency, environmental management, and safety. It was verified that guidance partially mediates the relationship between safety practice and behavior.
These results suggest that childcare teachers' safety competency and teacher sensitivity significantly impact safety practice behavior. Therefore, efforts are needed to increase childcare teachers' safety competency and teacher sensitivity. To this end, it is expected to strengthen safety education and training for childcare teachers, provide essential data on the need to develop and distribute various programs to increase teacher sensitivity and establish policies for infant safety.
* Keywords: safety competency, teacher sensitivity, safety practice behavior, childcare teacher