A model of childcare safety performance in Malaysia

Nowadays, childcare institutions are becoming more important, especially for working families, to assist them while they are working. Meanwhile, the injuries and death cases in childcare have been reported frequently in the media, which motivates the investigation of childcare safety and babysitter issues. A safe childcare environment protects children from any harm and significantly contributes to their mental and physical development. Therefore, this study aims to theoretically and empirically investigate the mediating impact of babysitter traits (BT) between the safety management practices (SMP) towards the childcare safety performance (SP), underpinned by the domino theory, human factor theory, and resource-based-view theory. The quantitative method was applied to gather feedback from Malaysian childcare providers through a survey questionnaire. A total of 117 respondents were deemed usable and analyzed using SmartPLS software. Results indicated that there exists a direct impact (SMP-SP, SMP-BT, BT-SP), which were all significant. It was found that there was a significant mediating impact of babysitter traits between safety management practices and childcare safety performance. Even though the presence of safety management practices is linked with the childcare safety performance for accident prevention, childcare safety performance relies on the mediation of traits by the babysitter. Thus, when childcare focuses on safety management practices to prevent accidents, all practices, including management commitment, safety training, workers involvement, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies, should be applied as one model to achieve childcare safety performance. Childcare also should be concerned with the empowerment of traits among their babysitter and focus on the good value of traits during babysitter’s recruitment. Hence, the research contributed the childcare safety model that is valuable for scholars, childcare providers, policymakers, training providers, the community, and parents to a safer childcare environment and children’s well-being.