BIASES IN QUALITY ATTRIBUTION TO MOTHER-CHILD AND CAREGIVER-CHILD INTERACTION

Participants (N = 141) rated videotaped dyadic adult-child interactions on dimensions of quality. Participants who were informed that they were viewing mother-child dyads rated the quality of interactions differently than participants who believed they were watching unrelated care provider-child dyads. ''Mothers'' were judged more harshly than ''providers'' in the bad and mixed quality segments but not in the good quality segments. Questionnaires completed by the participants revealed that participants' sex and own child care experiences influenced attitudes toward child care and maternal employment but did not influence quality ratings. Potential explanations for the biases in quality attribution to maternal and nonmaternal care providers and the possible invalidity of attitude questionnaires in the detection of these biases are discussed.