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Child Care and Community Services: Characteristics of Service Use and Effects on Parenting
Auger, Anamarie, 2012
University of California, Irvine

The study aims to improve the field's understanding of the features of child care services that are most critical to support children's development and identify family-level processes that might be influenced by child care. Specific research questions are: (1) What characteristics of parents predict usage of supports and services offered through the child care center and the community?; (2) What types of services and supports do parents use?; (3) Do the services and supports provided or referred to parents from the child care or preschool setting positively affect the home environment and parenting practices? To address these questions three national data sets (Head Start Impact Study, National Evaluation of Early Head Start, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development) are being analyzed. The results of the study can further inform the field of the parental characteristics related to service take-up and whether the services have a positive effect on the home, in addition to providing practitioners and policymakers with evidence to design early child care and education programs that improve the environments and relationships vital for children's academic and social development.

Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects

Child Care Arrangements Among Low-Income Families: A Qualitative Approach
Chaudry, Ajay, 2000
Harvard University

An analysis of child care arrangements among urban low-income families, using qualitative research methods--including interviews with mothers over a twelve month period, and observations in child care settings--to explore the following questions: (1) What are the strategies working families in low income urban communities adopt for their young children's care and development?; (2) How do different strategies affect the way children spend their time during early childhood?; and (3) What comparisons, if any, can be made in the care offered families with young children in American inner-city communities that differ by racial and ethnic composition, and/or the types of services available in those neighborhoods? The goal is to better understand individual family decisions within the context of the choices available at the community level.

Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects

Child Care Subsidy Use and the Relationship to Parental Work and Child Care Quality in Rural Communities
De Marco, Allison, 2009
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The purpose of this project is to understand how low-income rural families use child care subsidies, the quality of care they receive, and how subsidy use is related to child outcomes and parental work conditions. The project addresses these topics with data from the Family Life Project. The research questions include: (1) What percentage of rural families who are income-eligible for subsidies and use child care take up subsidies, and do the arrangements they make differ from (a) economically disadvantaged families who do not use subsidies; (b) economically advantaged families using child care?; (2) How do the work conditions of families who take-up child care subsidies differ from those who do not? Specifically, is job quality higher and more stable (e.g. more flexible, fewer turnovers, provide benefits, higher wages, more stable work hours)?; and (3) Is context, as measured by neighborhood disadvantage and geographic isolation, related to subsidy take-up?

Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects

Choice of Care Among Low-Income Working Families: A Study of Latino Families in the New South
Castro, Dina C., 2007
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge about child care needs and utilization among Latino low-income working families living in North Carolina, one of the states in the South with the fastest Latino population growth in the last two decades. The majority of Latinos in the South are recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America, whose child care needs and preferences may be somewhat different from those of Latinos in states with long-standing Latino populations. Furthermore, the rapid growth of the Latino population in this part of the country is posing challenges to a child care system that is trying to meet the needs of a group that may not only have different cultural and linguistic characteristics, but also may be unfamiliar with child care options available. The research questions are: (1) How are family characteristics associated with Latino low-income parents' choice of care for their preschool age children?; (2) How are program characteristics associated with Latino low-income parents' choice of non-parental care?; and (3) What are Latino parents' views about the characteristics of quality care? And to what extent do the type and quality of child care used by Latino families meet their child care needs?

Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects

Family Income, Infant Child Care, and Child Development
Robeson, Wendy W., 2001
Wellesley College

An exploration of links among poverty, quality and cost of child care, family outcomes, other key family characteristics, and infant development at 12 and 24 months, using a random sample of 200 infants (100 girls, 100 boys) and their families from 100 centers that care for infants. This project is a collaboration among the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, the Wellesley College Psychology Department, and Abt Associates, and is part of a larger research program addressing important issues of quality and cost in early care and education.

Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects

Impact of Pre-K Expansion on Child Care for Low-Income Families
Schilder, Diane, 2007
Education Development Center

This study is designed to address questions about the association between prekindergarten (preK) expansion and the supply and quality of child care for low-income families. We are conducting a longitudinal investigation to identify changes in the supply of child care and in the quality of care for low-income working families across different types of providers and for different ages of children. Research questions include: (1) How do changes in state preK funding relate to the overall supply of child care and in the supply of child care for the children of low-income families? How does this change over time differ based on whether the county predominantly delivers preK through public schools or through child care and Head Start providers?; (2) How does the configuration of the child care market change over time as preK programs expand?; and (3) How is expansion of preK programs related to the quality of child care? How do expanded preK programs affect the quality of child care available to low-income families?

Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects