A practicum was conducted to design, implement, and evaluate an instrument measuring the relative strengths of task-and nontask-related motivation of child care employees. Designed for child care center employees and supervisors, the instrument consisted of a self-administered demographic checklist and 100 forced-choice pictorial items representing stressors commonly found on and off the worksite. It was administered to 278 employees and 50 supervisors in the private child care field throughout the United States. In addition, respondents were asked to indicate their interest in inhouse inservice training programs. Analysis of data from the instrument revealed that distraction by nonjob-related tensions was directly related to level of socioeconomic disadvantage. While employee mean scores did not indicate a preponderance of nonjob-related tensions, item analyses indicated a heavy weighting of transportation, shelter, and family problems. Included among other findings were the following: respondents from southern and eastern states displayed the highest distraction, employers obtained lower distraction scores than did employees; and neither group expressed significant interest in future inservice training programs. Responding employers considered the instrument helpful in understanding sources of employee stress. (MN)