Child Care Choices of Low-Income Families with Vulnerabilities
This project explores the ways in which low-income, vulnerable families choose child care. The goal is to identify the family characteristics and contextual factors that expand or limit child care choices. The three-year project takes place in several low-income, urban communities participating in the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections initiative. The sites are Oakland, Providence, Seattle, and Denver. The focus is on vulnerable families, including families who have children with special needs, parents who are English language learners or immigrants, parents receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and children at risk of maltreatment. The research includes a family study and a community study. The family study includes two rounds of field-based, semi-structured interviews with parents regarding their decision-making processes related to child care. The community study, which takes place between the two rounds of family interviews, includes interviews with key community members regarding the community and policy contexts that affect child care choices. The following research questions are addressed: (1) What factors influence choice of care among low-income working families in a diverse set of urban neighborhoods? How do different families with particular vulnerabilities make child care choices?; (2) How do child care choice processes of parents overall, and particularly families who have special vulnerabilities, interact with several key contextual factors (e.g., job options, local policies and programs)?; and (3) What family characteristics or contextual factors seem to particularly expand or constrain the child care choices of low-income families overall, and the lives of vulnerable families in particular? Which of these seem amenable to policy strategies to support choices for low-income working families, and what should these strategies be?
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Full-day kindergarten offsets negative effects of poverty on state tests
An examination of the influences of poverty and full- or half-day kindergarten attendance on the third grade English and Mathematics achievement of 4,411 Indiana children in a three-year cohort study in an urban school district
Reports & Papers
Investigation of dimensions of social-emotional classroom behavior and school readiness for low-income urban preschool children
An investigation of higher order dimensions of early educator's classroom strategies to promoting learning, social, emotional, and behavioral adjustments for low income preschool children
Reports & Papers
Nonpoor children in Head Start: Explanations and implications
An examination and explanation of rates of nonpoor children's enrollment in Head Start as reported in national surveys
Reports & Papers
Preliminary evidence for the impact of mixed-income preschools on low-income children's language growth
An examination of the impact of attending a mixed-income preschool on low income children's language development as compared with the language development of low income children attending non-economically integrated programs
Reports & Papers
Preschool teachers’ beliefs about appropriate early literacy and mathematics education for low- and middle-socioeconomic status children
An exploration of preschool teachers’ beliefs about appropriate early education pedagogy for low- and middle-socioeconomic status children, based on responses from 60 teachers assigned to read written vignettes describing issues related to teaching either literacy or mathematics
Reports & Papers
The role of grandmothers in the lives of preschoolers growing up in urban poverty
An examination of the impact of grandmothers' residential status and child care responsibilities on low income preschool children's cognitive development and academic achievement using data from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study
Reports & Papers
