First Advisor

Leslie B. Hammer

Term of Graduation

Spring 1994

Date of Publication

6-6-1994

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Psychology

Department

Psychology

Language

English

Subjects

Child care, Absenteeism (Labor), Job satisfaction

DOI

10.15760/etd.6668

Physical Description

1 online resource (3, iii, 66 pages)

Abstract

This study examined the effects of different types of child care arrangements (i.e., care by relatives; care by nonrelatives; self-care by child; and care by day care centers) and satisfaction with care on employee absenteeism and job satisfaction. A 53% response rate was obtained from a questionnaire administered to 501 classified staff employees at Portland State University. Only responses from employees with children under the age of 18 living at home were used. Eighty-six employees met this selection criterion.

It was hypothesized that parents using self-care by child would have the highest absences, followed by parents using day care centers, followed by parents using care by nonrelatives, followed by parents using care by relatives. Second, it was hypothesized that parents using care by relatives would have the highest job satisfaction levels, followed by parents using care by nonrelatives, followed by parents using day care centers, followed by parents using self-care by child. Third, it was hypothesized that satisfaction with care would affect job satisfaction and absenteeism such that parents who were satisfied with their care arrangements would have higher job satisfaction and lower absenteeism. Fourth, it was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference between men and women on absenteeism such that women would have higher absences than men.

Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that employees using care by nonrelatives had significantly higher absences (during the last month and year) than those using care by relatives. In addition, employees using care by nonrelatives reported the highest number of absences on both measures of absenteeism. This study revealed that type of child care arrangement was not related to employee job satisfaction. The analyses also revealed that employees' satisfaction with care was related to absenteeism (during the last month), i.e., as parents' satisfaction with care increased, the number of absences reported decreased. Therefore, the first and third hypotheses were partially supported but the second and fourth hypotheses were not supported. The results of this study demonstrates that the types of child care arrangements that parents use are related to employee absenteeism but not job satisfaction.

Rights

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Comments

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/27967

Included in

Psychology Commons

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