Date of Award

8-1-1977

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify and compare attitudes of a sample of male and female, professional and preprofessional caregivers toward their work in preschools. To accomplish this purpose the following research questions were answered:

1. Do male and female caregiver subjects differ in their a. reasons for becoming caregivers? b. reasons for satisfaction with the job of caregiving? c. reasons for dissatisfaction with the job of caregiving? d. overall intrinsic satisfaction with the job of caregiving? e. overall extrinsic satisfaction with the job of caregiving? f. reasons for staying on the job?

2. Do male and female preprofessional caregiver subjects differ in their a. reasons for wanting to become caregivers? b. reasons for anticipated satisfaction with the job of caregiving? c. reasons for anticipated dissatisfaction with the job of caregiving? d. overall expected intrinsic satisfaction with the job of caregiving? e. overall expected extrinsic satisfaction with the job of caregiving?

3. Do subjects differ by sex or status as professional or preprofessional caregivers in their a. reasons for becoming or wanting to become caregivers? b. reasons for satisfaction or anticipated satisfaction with the job of caregiving? c. reasons for dissatisfaction or anticipated dissatisfaction with the job of caregiving? d. overall intrinsic or expected intrinsic satisfaction with the job of caregiving? e. overall extrinsic or expected extrinsic satisfaction with the job of caregiving?

Procedure: The investigator used seventy (70) subjects, not randomly selected, made up of forty (40) professional subjects and thirty (30) preprofessional subjects. Both groups had equal numbers of males and females. Subjects resided in two geographical areas, Chicago and the Red River Valley of the North.

Attitudes were identified through responses to an open ended interview questionnaire, the Preschool Caregiver Interview Questionnaire (PCIQ), developed by the researcher and a paper and pencil questionnaire, the short form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). PCIQ questions elicited reasons for career selection, job satisfaction, job dissatisfaction and job longevity. Interview statements were categorized as either intrinsic or extrinsic with each subject being assigned a percentage representing the proportion of intrinsic statements used. MSQ responses were categorized according to manual instructions and resulted in an intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction score for each respondent.

Data collected by the PCIQ and MSQ were analyzed by an analysis of variance technique with significant difference set at the .05 level.

Results: No significant differences were found between subject groups on MSQ scores. Interview responses were not found to be significantly different in six of ten possible areas. The four areas in which differences were significant were the following:

1. Male subjects used more intrinsic statements in discussing their satisfaction with the job of caregiving than did the female subjects.

2. Male professional subjects used more intrinsic statements in discussing their reasons for staying on the job than did the female professional subjects.

3. Preprofessional subjects used more intrinsic statements in discussing reasons for becoming caregivers than did the professional subjects.

4. Preprofessional subjects used more intrinsic statements in discussing possible job dissatisfaction than did the professional subjects.

Conclusions: The major finding of this study is that the males and females in this sample did not differ significantly in most of their attitudes toward the job of caregiving. Men, more than women, however, did find personal accomplishments and activities as attractive aspects of working in preschools.

The lack of difference in most of the job attitudes surveyed of the males and females corresponds with findings of other researchers who have studied male and female teachers of elementary school children. This study, then, provides additional data which indicates little atti- tudinal or behavioral difference between males and females who choose to be involved in the education or care of young children.

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