Ghazvini and Mullis (2002) reported
that early childhood educators tend to be more punitive and detached when working in classrooms with higher group
sizes and more children per adult. In a Greek sample, Petrogiannis
(2002) found that only the adult:child ratio and
not the group size is correlated with the Permisiveness
subscales, whereas Petrogiannis and Melhuish (1996) found
that punitiveness and permissiveness are predicted by
adult:child ratio and not by group size. De Schipper et al.
(2007) found that caregivers’ age and experience were
related to caregiving quality as measured with CIS. On the
other hand, they did not find significant correlations among
group size and ratios with CIS scores. Thus, De Schipper
et al. (2007) found that younger children received lower
quality of caregiving behavior, a finding which is not substantiated
by our research results. Leach et al. (2008) found
that adult:child ratio correlates with the scores in punitiveness
and detachment and positive interaction subscales.
Yet, few significant associations emerged, in their study,
between the ages, qualifications and experience of nursery
staff and aspects of the caregiving behaviour.