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Peer Reviewed JournalCurrent Filters: Resource Type:Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects [remove];
154 results found.|
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Child Care Quality: Does Partnering with Head Start Make a Difference? A three-year investigation of the relationship between Child Care/Head Start partnerships, observed quality, and children's school readiness, conducted in Ohio by the Education Development Center (EDC). The research expands on an existing study to examine: (1) under what conditions child care partnerships with Head Start are related to observed child care classroom quality; (2) whether there is a link between partnerships and children's school readiness; and (3) whether partnerships are associated with observed quality in family child care homes. The study uses data collected on environmental quality and child outcomes, through the use of observational and child assessment instruments, from 67 child care center classrooms, 673 children, and 135 family child care homes, all randomly selected. This research addresses critical questions about the effectiveness of coordination efforts and provides evidence about the outcomes of strategies designed to improve child care quality. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child-Care Selection from Birth to Age Three: The Influence of Family Economy, Demographics, and Parenting Beliefs A study of the influence of family socioeconomic status, parental beliefs, and differences between single and two parent families on child care selection. The study identifies the timing and sequence of care over children's first three years of life, and examines the following issues: (1) whether and when children enter care of different types (e.g., relative care vs. family day care) and intensity (e.g., part- versus full-time); (2) the sequence of arrangements over the first three years; (3) how time-variant (e.g., income, parenting beliefs) and time-invariant (e.g., ethnicity) family characteristics affect child care decisions; and (4) whether these effects vary by child age. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care Subsidies and Entry to Employment Following Childbirth A study of the relationship between child care subsidies and the length of time between the birth of a child and the mother's entry to employment, particularly among lower-skilled women, who typically spend a larger proportion of their earnings on child care than do women with higher skills and education. The study is based on The Fragile Families and Well-Being Study (a nationally representative data set), and a unique data set of local policy indicators, and tests the hypothesis that child care subsidies cause new mothers to enter the labor force more expeditiously by: (1) reducing the cost of employment relative to earnings; and (2) facilitating stable child care arrangements. It predicts that the receipt of subsidies and the timing of entry to paid employment will vary with child care policies, after controlling for individual and family characteristics that influence the benefits and costs of subsidy use, and of paid employment relative to home production (i.e. caregiving) work. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care Subsidies and the Work Effort of Single Mothers Post-welfare reform has introduced a new set of policy questions around child care subsidy receipt. The present study addresses policy relevant questions that seek to better articulate the relationships between single mothers' decisions about work, child care and subsidy access. In addition, the study explores the relative importance of process and structural measures of child care quality in supporting children's development. Sample: Unmarried mothers with at least one child under age 13. Measures: Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) Program Records; National Survey of America's Families (NSAF); Early Childhood Longitudinal Study birth cohort (ECLS-B). |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care Subsidies: Who Uses Them and What Do They Buy Low-Income Families and Children? This study uses data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to: (1) determine whether eligible recipients of child care subsidies differ from the eligible non-recipients of child care subsidies on child and family characteristics and parental preferences for child care; (2) examine whether subsidy receipt in preschool leads parents to purchase higher-quality child care than they could have afforded without the subsidy; and (3) test whether subsidy receipt in preschool is associated with better school readiness in kindergarten. Expanding on prior work, this study identifies eligible non-recipients of child care subsidies who resemble subsidy recipients not only on observable demographic characteristics but also on variables that are harder to measure, like parental preferences for specific features of child care. Subsidy recipients are compared to eligible non-recipients on family and child characteristics and parental preference variables. Then, a propensity score matching technique is used to estimate the causal effect of subsidy use in preschool on the quality of preschool care children experience. Finally, state-fixed effects regressions with a lagged dependent variable are employed to test whether subsidy use in preschool is associated with children’s school readiness in kindergarten. If such an association exists, the possibility that preschool child care quality mediates this link is explored. In all analyses, children who receive subsidies are compared to children who are eligible for subsidies but who instead use either Head Start, or public pre-kindergarten, or unsubsidized care. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care Subsidy Use and the Relationship to Parental Work and Child Care Quality in Rural Communities 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
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Child Care Subsidy Use and Self-Sufficiency Pathways of Low-Income Mothers: A Three-State Study An exploration of factors related to subsidy take-up rates, child care use for those on subsidies, and the effects of child care subsidies on welfare and employment, based on an analysis of linked individual-level administrative data on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) receipt, use of child care subsidies, and wage reports from Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care Today: Cost and Quality of Family Child Care and Infant/Toddler Care A comparative study of variations in child care quality and cost across types of care, child ages, workforce characteristics, and community/neighborhood factors, using a random sample of 200 family child care homes and 100 centers serving infants and toddlers. This project is part of a larger study funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care Use in Mexican American Families An examination of factors that may influence child care practices of Mexican American families, including: community and employment factors; cultural beliefs and caregiving practices; extended family and non-kin networks; family characteristics; and child care characteristics. The study uses an integrative process-oriented model of minority children's development, and follows two cohorts of Mexican American families: a group with one-month old infants (N=80), and a group with 24-month old toddlers (N=80), for three years. This cross-sectional cohort design focuses on three issues: (1) factors associated with parental child care choices; (2) assessment of the features and quality of child care; and (3) factors associated with the effect of child care on family and child outcomes. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Care, Welfare and Families: The Nexus of Policies, Practices, and Systems An examination of the role of welfare policies and practices in shaping child care for low-income families, building on the Urban Institute's New Federalism Project. Key issues include: (1) how child care and welfare systems are organized at State and local levels; (2) the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches; and (3) how overlap and duplication are being addressed. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Child Development at the Intersection of Early Care and Education and Child Welfare Extensive literature supports the notion that young children involved in the child welfare system exhibit a myriad of developmental needs, including developmental delays, and physical and mental health issues. Ample research also demonstrates the potential of high quality early care and education (ECE) programs to improve the wellbeing of other groups of similarly at-risk children. It follows that stable, developmentally appropriate ECE may also have the potential to improve developmental outcomes for children involved in Child Welfare. Yet children involved in this system may also have unique experiences that affect both their use of ECE and its potential impacts. Despite these traditions of research, there is a dearth of research at the critical nexus of these early childhood systems. This study represents the launch of a new program of inquiry aimed at addressing this gap in by providing detailed data about the ECE arrangements experienced by young foster children, factors that predict differing patterns of ECE use within this population, and the developmental outcomes of ECE use. Specifically, it draws upon one national and two state level datasets to address four research objectives: (1) Provide descriptive data on the ECE experiences of young foster children (timing, amount, type) and uncover any differences in patterns of ECE exposure by child or foster parent demographics; (2) Examine the contribution of foster parents' work status, access to public ECE supports, and preferences to patterns of ECE reliance; (3) Explore associations between patterns of ECE use and developmental outcomes for foster children; and (4) Examine all of these questions for the large subpopulation of foster children who also have special needs. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Children at Risk in the Child Welfare System: Collaborations to Promote School Readiness A case study examining the extent to which the child welfare, early care and education, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) early intervention systems are collaborating to promote the school readiness needs of children under age five in the child welfare system in Colorado. The study is based on field interviews with approximately 150 key agency staff and survey interviews with approximately 500 foster parents and 200 child welfare caseworkers, and explores: (1) barriers to and facilitators of collaboration at the state, county and local levels; and (2) the degree to which children in the child welfare system are being linked to the IDEA early intervention and early care and education (ECE) programs. This research informs policy and program choices about best practices and models for how the multiple agencies which provide these services can coordinate their efforts. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Choice of Care Among Low-Income Working Families: A Study of Latino Families in the New South 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
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Church-sponsored child care: Association of regulatory level with quality for young children The specific aims of this dissertation research are to on explore the quality of church-sponsored center-based child care as observed in three levels of state child care regulation. The first objective is to determine if and how global child care quality and teacher-child interactions vary in infant classrooms and preschool classrooms across three groups of differently-regulated church-sponsored centers. The second objective is to determine if the structural characteristics of group size, adult-child ratio, caregiver education level, and caregiver age mediate the relationship between level of state regulation and child care quality. The results will support the CCDF goals of understanding variations in child care quality provided to children from low income families, and the effects of government regulation on quality, and will inform policy makers as they consider future support and regulation of child care quality. Research questions include: (1) Does overall child care quality and teacher-child interaction differ in infant classrooms and preschool classrooms across the three groups of differently regulated centers?; (2) Do group size, adult-child ratio, caregiver education level, and caregiver age mediate the relationship between level of regulation and global quality scores?; and (3) Do group size, adult-child ratio, caregiver education level, and caregiver age mediate the relationship between level of regulation and teacher-child interaction? |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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A Closer Look: Child Care, PreK, and Head Start Collaboration CCDF, Pre-K and Head Start all serve low-income children under the age of 5, but each of these programs is guided by different goals, standards, delivery models, and operational hours, resulting in unique strengths as well as differences in quality. Research has shown that child care providers in collaboration with Head Start demonstrate benefits over comparison providers in terms of program quality, teacher quality, and classroom quality. However, questions remain about the nature and impact of multi-program collaborations on desired outcomes. Our study is designed to address questions about the nature and impact of child care, pre-K, and Head Start collaboration. We are analyzing state, provider-and child-level data provided by the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services (ODJFS), and existing survey datasets from Education Development Center, Inc (EDC) to address the following research questions: (1) What are the characteristics of programs that are engaged in collaboration?; (2) What are the characteristics of teachers who work in programs engaged in collaboration?; (3) What are the characteristics of the children who are enrolled in programs engaged in collaboration?; (4) Is there a relationship between collaboration and classroom quality?; (5) Is there a relationship between collaboration and teacher professional development?; (6) Is there a relationship between collaboration and child growth? |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Community Variations in Child Care for Working Poor Families: Contributions to Child Development and Parental Employment Opportunities A description and comparison of the "child care landscapes" in four communities with diverse subsidy policies, employing an integrated design and using existing data, qualitative data, and quantitative data to identify the community-level variables that are most strongly associated with quality of care and child and family outcomes, and to determine the linkages between child care characteristics and parental work outcomes. The first phase includes 500 parent surveys, 30 community informant interviews, 15 parent focus groups and an analysis of existing community data. The second phase includes assessments of 300 children (30 infants/toddlers and 30 preschoolers in each of 5 communities), their parents, and their child care providers, using measures of child care structural quality, process quality, child development, and parent employment. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Comparative Analysis of Subsidized and Non-Subsidized Relative Child Care in Kansas An assessment of the quality of care in subsidized relative care settings, conducted for the purpose of informing policymakers regarding the efficacy of this investment. The objectives are two-fold: (1) to assess and compare quality of care observed in both subsidized and non-subsidized relative child care settings; and (2) to conduct a needs assessment of subsidized relative child care providers from which governmental agencies can facilitate support mechanisms or quality initiatives meeting the specific and unique needs of these providers. The study gathers quantitative data from sample pools of 30 subsidized and 30 non-subsidized relative child care providers from select Kansas counties, using the Child Care Assessment Tool for Relatives (CCAT-R) to measure the quality in relative care environments. Complementary qualitative data is gathered from focus group interviews of subsidized and non-subsidized child care providers. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Comparing Web-Based to In-Person Training to Deliver a Nutrition and Physical Activity Intervention in Child Care A comparative study of different types of training components of the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care project (NAP SACC) in terms of their overall effectiveness at preparing Child Health Care Consultants (CCHCs) to deliver the NAP SACC intervention. NAP SACC is an intervention for child care centers and family child care homes aimed at improving nutrition and physical activity policies and practices, including the nutritional quality of food served, the amount and quality of physical activity, staff-child interactions, and center nutrition and physical activity policy, through self-assessment and targeted technical assistance. With the help of a trained CCHC, centers complete a self-assessment instrument at pre and post-intervention to evaluate center nutrition and physical activity policies and practices in fifteen areas. This study gathers a sample of twenty CCHCs who volunteer to bring NAP SACC to their counties, randomly assigns them to one of two training methods--web-based and in-person group, and evaluates them on their overall nutrition and physical activity knowledge and their ability to provide technical assistance to centers. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Connecticut Early Childhood Research and Development Project: Child Care Data CONNections A project undertaken by the Connecticut Department of Social Services, and the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, to build a statewide research infrastructure for well-informed, effective and efficient program and policy development at state and local levels, with the advice and guidance of six stakeholder panels (research, data, advocacy, technology, funders, and data users). Activities include building an inventory of databases, prioritizing recommendations for aligning existing databases and related information dissemination processes, and developing a three- to five-year research agenda. |
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The Constraints of Choice: The Role of Race/Ethnicity, Class, and Community Context in Child Care Decisions An examination of the role of contextual variables in mothers' child care choices, through an identification of how child care decisions are shaped by race/ethnicity, class, and community contexts, using quantitative data from the Philadelphia Survey of Child Care and Work, and from the City of Philadelphia. The study investigates the following questions: (1) How does the neighborhood supply of licensed child care affect the use of formal or informal child care?; (2) How do child care decisions vary by racial/ethnic and socioeconomic class characteristics?; (3) How do household demographics and work characteristics influence mothers' use of formal or informal child care?; (4) How does a mother's social networks and other resources affect her use of formal or informal care?; (5) What are the consequences of using formal or informal care?; and (6) How do the previous issues vary by neighborhood/community context? The policy implication of this study is the importance of how communities act as a medium through which the supply of, and access to, child care can be measured |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Design Phase of the National Study of Child Care Supply and Demand A project to develop sampling and methodology options for the National Study of Child Care Supply and Demand, with special focus on low income households with children ages birth through 12 years whose parents are working and receiving cash assistance, transitioning off cash assistance, or at risk of needing cash assistance, and on child care and early education programs and providers serving these focal families. Other deliverables include: (1) literature review; (2) compendium of survey measures; (3) development of survey instruments that address questions of interest from both the demand and supply sides, address the limitations of other data collections efforts in this area of inquiry, and fill a gap in our knowledge; (4) feasibility test of the proposed design and the survey instruments with the populations of interest; and (5) a resource analysis. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Determinants of Subsidy Stability and Continuity of Child Care in Illinois and New York Determinants of Subsidy Stability and Continuity of Child Care in Illinois and New York is a research partnership that joins child care researchers at the University of Chicago and the Urban Institute with Illinois and New York state child care administrators and local administrators of subsidies in four regions (two per state). The primary aim of the partnership is to develop an empirically-informed and practically-relevant knowledgebase regarding important determinants of subsidy stability and child care continuity and the linkages between the two. By targeting our study on four regions in two states and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information on parent perceptions and experiences together with administrative program records, our empirical strategy aims to strengthen our understanding of the patterns of subsidy and child care stability over time. In particular, it will allow us to examine how subsidy program characteristics and employment circumstances may operate to encourage or discourage subsidy receipt and subsidy stability; and in turn, how subsidy receipt and stability contribute to child care arrangement continuity. Research questions include: (1) What are the different patterns of subsidy use and stability over time, what are the characteristics of families who demonstrate different subsidy patterns, and how does subsidy use vary with other public program use and with employment patterns; (2) To what extent do subsidy program characteristics and parental work circumstances influence subsidy use and stability and do parental work circumstances moderate the effects of subsidy program characteristics on subsidy use and stability; (3) How stable are child care arrangements for subsidy-receiving families both during a subsidy spell and over time, what are the characteristics of families who have unstable child care arrangements during a subsidy spell and/or over time, what are the characteristics of their child care arrangements, and what is the relationship between subsidy stability and child care arrangement stability; (4) To what extent do subsidy program characteristics and parental work circumstances directly influence the stability of child care arrangements, and are these influences mediated by patterns of subsidy use; (5) What challenges to subsidy stability and child care stability do parents perceive to be most difficult, are there subsidy program characteristics that parents perceive as promoting or hindering subsidy stability, child care options, and child care arrangement stability, how do parents perceive the directionality of influence between subsidy stability and child care arrangement stability; and (6) What challenges to subsidy stability and child care stability are particularly salient for parents with non-traditional jobs and/or nonstandard work schedules, TANF families, immigrant families/non-English speaking parents, families with multiple children and school-aged children needing care, and what are the strategies for obtaining stability that these parents develop in their efforts to deal with the challenges they identify |
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Devolution of Subsidized Child Care in Texas A study of the relationship between child care subsidy management policies and the supply, usage, and quality of subsidized care for low-income families in 28 local workforce regions. The study employs a detailed statistical analysis plan to guide increasingly sophisticated analyses throughout the project, and uses administrative data from several state agencies, in combination with other public data, to develop a summary profile for each region, including key policies, demographics, economic characteristics, and child care measures. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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Early Care and Education Choices, Quality and Continuity for Low-Income Families: A Maryland-Minnesota Research Partnership Maryland and Minnesota are two states that have been leading innovations across early care and education policy and simultaneously investing in research and data infrastructure to ensure that their strategies are informed by evaluation and new evidence in the field. This project creates a Maryland-Minnesota Child Care Research Partnership, bringing together two states committed to examining critical issues in early care and education and using research findings to inform policy with an interdisciplinary team of researchers experienced in conducting studies on subsidy policy, quality improvement strategies, family experiences and child outcomes. Three cross-state sub-studies serve as the foundation for the work of the Partnership: (1) How families seek and process information about early care and education; (2) How families value and weigh different features of the quality of arrangements; and (3) Factors affecting and antecedents of child care stability/child care subsidy continuity. The studies were developed to build on existing research projects in both Maryland and Minnesota to maximize the investments made in development and data collection and to facilitate cross-state application of the learning. The research questions included: (1) How do families describe the process of making decisions about early care and education and what are the milestones in this process; (2) What family and community characteristics predict subsidy use and the type and quality of early care and education arrangements chosen; (3) What are parents' perceptions of family-sensitive caregiving, developmentally appropriate instructional practices, and practices that support children's social and emotional development, and to what extent are aspects of quality important to parents; (4) Which provider demographic characteristics distinguish those with a greater orientation towards family-sensitive caregiving, developmentally appropriate instructional practices, and practices that support children's social and emotional development; (5) What child, family, and community factors are associated with frequent changes in arrangements and what factors are associated with stability or infrequent changes; and (6) While participating in the subsidy program, how long do subsidized arrangements last and how many subsidized arrangements do children have while on subsidy |
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Early Care Settings and School Readiness of Low-Income Children: Cross-Cutting Lessons from Two Complementary Studies A project led by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), in conjunction with collaborators from the University of Texas at Austin, examining the relationship between center- and home-based care settings and the development of low income children (primarily children of working parents), aged kindergarten to third grade. The research is based on two unique datasets: (1) a pooled dataset of seven experimental studies of welfare and employment programs--empirical techniques that take advantage of treatment-induced differences in employment, income and child care--that is used to control for child care selection factors; and (2) The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD)--a longitudinal child care study following children from birth--that is used to conduct an analysis of features of different types of care settings and the resulting effects on children's development. This research addresses critical questions about the effects of center- and home-based care settings on multiple domains of low income children's development, paying specific attention to the direction of causality in effects. |
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
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