Dimensions of quality in Swedish day care centers — An analysis of the early childhood environment rating scale

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Abstract
The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) was used to measure the quality in 40 Swedish day care centers randomly chosen from the total number of day care centers in the city of Gothenburg. The ECERS was translated as exactly as possible from the original version. Statistical analysis of the inter‐rater agreement were made and problems in relation to the training and competence of the raters are discussed. The reliability of the instrument was estimated. Inter‐item correlations of the subscales and between these were analyzed. In a rotated varimax factor analysis one main factor was extracted explaining 40% of the variance. Items included in this factor were all related to the quality of the overall socialization and communicative environment like child/adult relationship, social‐emotional tone, informal use of language, etc. A second factor was interpreted as Quality of physical environment including items on learning material, display and room arrangement. Three small factors were interpreted as Quality of creative experience, Parental needs and Availability and educational use of spatial area. In this paper the results are discussed in relation to Swedish child care policy.