*2.3. Measures*

Our survey included questions about formal and informal guidelines for staff and rules for children for preventing CSA and wrongful allegations of CSA at the institutions. As the data collected was extensive, we address only the guidelines for staff in this article, and have presented our findings concerning the rules for children in a separate article [57].

We used a mixed-method survey [58,59] that included both mandatory, closed-ended questions, and optional, open-ended questions. The purpose of the quantitative questions was to establish the prevalence of guidelines for preventing CSA and wrongful allegations of CSA (henceforth, "the guidelines") at Danish childcare facilities, and to be able to generalize findings from a large sample concerning purposes, practices, consequences, and experiences related to the guidelines. For the analysis of the quantitative results, we used Statistical Package Social Sciences (SPSS), version 23.

<sup>5</sup> In Denmark, children begin elementary school at the age of 6.

<sup>6</sup> In Denmark, crèches are for children aged approximately 0–3 years old, and kindergartens are for children aged approximately 3–6 years old.

The purpose of the qualitative questions was to give participants the opportunity to elaborate on their views and experiences, and to tell their stories of the everyday practices surrounding the guidelines. Since no previous research described sta ff guidelines for preventing CSA and wrongful allegations of CSA in a Danish context, it was important that both directors and teachers provided information that we may not have thought to ask for, and it was important to address both formal and informal guidelines [59,60]. To analyze our survey's qualitative responses, we first used coding and thematic analysis [61] and next, the theoretical framework presented in Section 2.4.

To integrate our findings, we sometimes used data transformation [58]: some numeric findings were described verbally, and some qualitative findings were quantified, either verbally or numerically.

The quantitative and qualitative dimensions of this study were integrated through design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of the findings, and this article's conclusions were based on the integrated analysis of quantitative and qualitative findings [58–60]. The low response rate is a weakness of our study; therefore, our analysis and conclusions attach considerable weight to the study's qualitative data, which, in contrast, is abundant. In all, 1682 of the 2051 participants made qualitative comments, ranging from one sentence to entire "pages." These many responses to the open-ended questions provided a detailed picture of the everyday practices surrounding the sta ff guidelines at the institutions, which counterbalanced the weaker response rate.

#### *2.4. Theoretical Framework*

The main theory underlying the theoretical framework that we use to analyze this article's findings is Foucault's governmental theory of *discipline* and its central figure, *the panopticon*, which Foucault developed from Jeremy Bentham's 1791 concept of the Panopticon prison building [34]. The panopticon has been mentioned previously in the literature as an image of the surveillance in childcare facilities as a result of the panic about CSA [6,9,16]. We employ Foucault's figure to develop an in-depth analysis of the guidelines in the broader context of his theory of discipline. Our analysis demonstrates how Foucault's 1977 theory of discipline, which he traced back to the 18th century, is vividly exemplified by the childcare institution of late modernity. We argue that the panopticon function is reinforced in today's childcare institution, and, developing Foucault's concept, we invent a new concept, *the multidimensional panopticon*. Our conceptual framework also draws on Axel Honneth's theory of *recognition* [62] to demonstrate the lack of recognition of male childcare workers. We also apply a theory of fear, primarily from Lars Svendsen's *Fear* [63] and Frank Furedi's *Culture of Fear* [3], to analyze the fear at childcare facilities, and its impact on teacher–child relationships. We also examine the unintended consequences of the guidelines on the children, through the lens of developmental psychology and Arlie R. Hochschild's concept of *feeling rules* [64]. We conclude this article by noting the importance of trust as *social capital* at childcare institutions [65].
