Parents' Child Care Arrangements and their Ecological Correlates

Young children rely on their parents for making decisions about their child care experiences. Parents' child care arrangements are affected by the information they gather, their values and childrearing beliefs, their knowledge of child care quality, and the extent to which they are satisfied with their child care choices. Parents' decisions about child care are also influenced by ecological correlates, such as child age, maternal education and hours of employment, family ethnicity and income, and state and federal child care policies. This review addresses each of these elements and their role in parents' child care arrangements and concludes with recommendations for honoring parents' child care ideals through better child care quality information and higher professional standards for child care providers.     

Parental features and quality of life in the decision to remove children at risk from home

OBJECTIVES: The study examined the associations between the decisions of child protection officers to remove children at risk from home and a) the features of the children's parents and b) the quality of life the parents make it possible for their children to have. METHOD: 194 child protection workers completed a parental features questionnaire, child injury questionnaire, and Shye's Systemic Quality of Life Questionnaire on two children, one removed from home, the other remained. RESULTS: Parental cooperation with the worker, relationship with the child, addiction, and cleanliness were related to both the decision and the assessment of enabling quality of life. Parents' poverty, criminality, psychological problems, and cognitive impairment were related only to the workers assessment of parents enabling quality of life. Family status was related only to the decision. While injury to the child was associated with the decision, it added virtually nothing to the explanation of the decision beyond parental features and enabling. CONCLUSIONS: The variables related to the workers' assessment of the parents' enabling overlapped only partially with those related to the decision. The parents' features and enabling made only a modest contribution to explaining the workers' decisions. The findings suggest that the quality of life measure used in this study encompasses injury.     

Mainstreaming modification preferences of parents of elementary-age children with learning disabilities

One hundred twenty-nine parents of children with learning disabilities responded to a questionnaire designed to solicit information on the types of modifications deemed most facilitative of parents' acceptance of full-time mainstreaming. Responses indicated that parents' participation in the mainstreaming process was an important factor in successful integration of children with learning disabilities. Parents' preferences for mainstreaming modifications differed from their current options, and they were supportive of full-time mainstreaming for their children, contingent upon implementation of their mainstreaming-related recommendations. Results are discussed relative to mainstreaming and proposed educational reforms.     

Teasing apart the child care conundrum: A factorial survey analysis of perceptions of child care quality, fair market price and willingness to pay by low-income, African American parents

Child care quality plays a crucial role in children's social and cognitive development. While child care quality is a critical issue for all children, it matters more for low-income children. Policy makers have increased the emphasis on allowing parents, not government, to make decisions about the type of care they want for their children. Yet most research on child care quality has focused on how child care professionals, not parents define high quality care. This study investigates how low-income families evaluate child care quality by examining the child care preferences of a sample of low-income African American parents. We employ the factorial survey method, a method used in sociological research to assess people's perceptions and rankings of individual attributes associated with complex multidimensional phenomena. The factorial survey method permits a simultaneous assessment of how respondents evaluate and make tradeoffs among multiple child care characteristics. We assess the impact of child care characteristics on respondents’ perceptions of child care desirability, fair market value, and willingness to pay. Findings indicate that parents’ definition of quality focused squarely on the care giving environment, specifically the qualifications, experience, training and behavior associated with the child care provider. The type of care facility—family, center, relative or neighbor care was largely irrelevant to this sample of parents. Parents believed that the characteristics they defined as desirable child care situations were worth more, and parents were willing to pay more for these characteristics. These parents also defined quality in terms of race and class, and they wanted racial and economic diversity. This research suggests parents may choose lower quality care, not because they do not know what quality is or because they define quality care differently, but because such care may be neither available nor affordable in their communities.     

Family,child and location factors and parents’ reasons for multiple concurrent childcare arrangements in the years before school in Australia

Research suggests that multiple non-parental care arrangements may have adverse effects on young children, yet little is known about their prevalence, factors associated with their use, or parents’ reasons for making these care arrangements. This longitudinal study reports on 677 children and their families recruited from government-regulated child care centers and family child care services in urban and rural New South Wales, Australia. Multiple concurrent care arrangements were relatively common, with one third of children attending at least two child care arrangements per week. Multiple child care was found to be more likely for children who were older, with better health, or with employed mothers, and who were living in rural rather than urban areas. Results suggest that parents’ reasons for using multiple care arrangements were based largely based on preferences that were made in the best interests of the child and on convenience. The deliberate choice by parents to use multiple child care arrangements to benefit their child challenges the assumption in previous literature that mixed care is not the parents’ first choice.     

Residential school placements and disabled children: the contrasting views of local education authorities and of parents

Despite government commitment to the inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, significant numbers of disabled children are placed in residential special schools. In the face of a distinct lack of information about the numbers or needs of these children, or about their experiences of living away from home at residential schools, the authors carried out research to examine why disabled children went to residential school, and their experiences of being there. This article focuses on the circumstances leading to a residential school placement, and the decision-making process from the point of view of local education authorities, and of parents. The paper reveals wide variations in the use of residential schools by local authorities, and conflicting views between and within authorities on the suitability of such placements. Parents' experiences are characterised by a lack of support in making very difficult decisions about the best place for their child to be, and a decision-making process dominated by delays, lack of information and conflict.     

Beyond an “Either–Or” approach to home- and center-based child care: Comparing children and families who combine care types with those who use just one

Most research focuses on preschoolers’ primary non-parental child care arrangement despite evidence that multiple arrangements are relatively common. Using the nationally-representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we compare characteristics and outcomes of families whose 4-year olds attend both home- and center-based child care with those who attend either home- or center-based care exclusively or receive no non-parental care at all. We find that about one fifth of 4-year olds attend both home- and center-based child care. Mothers’ priorities for care (getting their child ready for school, matching their families’ cultural background) and perceptions of good local care options predict their combining home- and center-based care. Preschoolers score higher on reading and math assessments, on average, when they attend centers, alone or in combination with home-based child care, than when they are cared for only in homes, either by their parents or by others. Preschoolers’ average socioemotional outcomes generally do not differ between families who do and who do not combine care types. Implications for research and policy are discussed.     

Parents' and Kindergarten Teachers' Beliefs About the Effects of Child Care

Parents' and kindergarten teachers' beliefs about the effects of child care on children's adjustment to school were investigated. Using a standardized behavioral rating scale, both groups were asked to rate two hypothetical children just entering kindergarten; one with full-day child care experience and one who had only experienced care in the home by a parent or relative. There was an interaction between the experience of the believer and their ratings of the two hypothetical children. Parents who had used child care for their own children rated the 'day care child' most positively. Parents who had kept their own children at home rated the 'home care child' most positively. Kindergarten teachers rated both hypothetical children equally, but more negatively than parents. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

The ups and downs of child care: Variations in child care quality and exposure across the early years

There is considerable policy interest in understanding the role of child care in children’s development. Yet little research has examined whether individual children experience changes in child care quality across their early years, and less has included children’s varying levels of exposure to care in analyses of child care trajectories. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, this study seeks to fill these gaps by studying the non-maternal care experiences of children whose mothers work at some point during their early years. We find that few of these children experience continuously high-quality care or continuously low-quality care. Instead, many children experience changes in child care quality. Children from low socioeconomic status families are more likely to experience low-quality care than children who are never poor, but children who are never poor are more likely to have child care histories that include both low- and high-quality care arrangements. We discuss the implications of our findings for studies of selection into low-quality child care arrangements and the effects of child care quality on children’s development.     

Informing parents about educational options. How well are we doing?

This study explores an aspect of information delivery to parents by focusing on those who have chosen residential school placements for their children. Although most parents choose to send their deaf children to special programs in regular public schools, some do opt for residential school placements. Little is known about the foundations on which such decisions are made, and this study is a preliminary attempt to better understand parents' motives and expectations and to assess the adequacy of information provided to them. In 128 surveys from a sample of parents nationwide, a surprising number reported that they were not given information about placement options. Of those who were, many said they were dissatisfied with the information. A large proportion of the parents were satisfied with the residential school. The relationships among their reasons for this placement, their views of the advantages and disadvantages, and the information provided to them are discussed.     

Pupil involvement in special educational needs disagreement resolution: a parental perspective

Recent international and Governmental policy has identified the need for all public services and professionals involved with children to take into account the children's views, needs and wishes, when making decisions about their care and educational provision. This is of particular importance in the context of special educational needs disagreement resolution. This article reports on a small scale preliminary study carried out in January 2004, focusing upon parental perspectives of pupil involvement in SEN disagreement resolution. Ten parents of children with SEN were interviewed using a semi‐structured interview schedule, addressing their experience of the disagreement resolution process and the extent and nature to which their child was involved. Whilst it is acknowledged that the sample in this study was small, and thus may be regarded as tentative and preliminary, a thematic analysis of the content of the interviews indicated that children are not directly involved in informal disagreement resolution meetings. Most notably the parents report that they are unclear about the process and rules about directly involving children. Where children are involved, their views are given indirectly and in most cases their views are only presented by the parents. The authors make several recommendations for enhancing pupil participation in SEN mediation arrangements including, making the overall process more transparent and perhaps having a child advocate who could ensure that the child's views are represented in a way that is suitable to the particular needs of each child.     

Four Perspectives on Child Care Quality

National and state child care policies are shaped in part by studies of child care quality. The majority of these studies focus on variables that influence child outcomes. Katz suggests that this is but one of four perspectives on child care quality, and that parents, children, and child care staff have perspectives on child care quality that have not been adequately addressed. This article reviews the variables, measures, and studies associated with each of these four perspectives. The authors argue that given the preponderance of studies conducted from the professional/researcher perspective, more effort should be directed to studying child care quality from parents' children's, and child care staff members' viewpoints.     

Family Interactions and the Development of Moral Reasoning

The study examined parents' role in their children's moral reasoning development. Parents' level of moral reasoning and interaction styles used in discussion of moral issues with their child were used to predict the child's moral development over a subsequent 2-year interval. Participants were 63 family triads (mother, father, and child) with children drawn from grades 1, 4, 7, and 10. They individually responded to a moral reasoning interview and then, as a family, discussed both a hypothetical and real-life moral dilemma. Children were reinterviewed 2 years later. Results indicated that parents did accommodate to their child's level of moral reasoning when in actual dialogue. Distinct differences in interaction styles were found between the 2 contexts (hypothetical vs. real-life dilemma discussion) and between parents and children. Children's moral development was best predicted by a parental discussion style that involved Socratic questioning and supportive interactions, combined with the presentation of higher-level moral reasoning. Implications of these findings for the understanding of parents' role in children's moral development are discussed.     

An exploratory study of the impacts of an employer-supported child care program

Although employer-sponsored child care programs have become more common, there is little empirical research on whether these programs affect employees’ satisfaction with child care or their work-life balance, and if effects vary across employee characteristics. In this exploratory study, we administered a survey to employees with children at one large university to gather information on their child care arrangements and experience with their employer's child care voucher program (N = 776). Satisfaction with child care varied with employee and child care characteristics, but not with voucher receipt. Families with preschool children, White families, and those using paid home-based care were more satisfied with their child care arrangements than those with school-age children, minority families, and those using center-based or before/afterschool care. Nearly half of voucher recipients (47%) reported benefits in work-life balance as a result of the voucher. Although demand-side vouchers appear to be a promising employer approach to address child care challenges, these results suggest that attention must also be given to the structure of child care supply as satisfaction and work-family stress are affected by more factors than child care cost only.     

Parent Involvement in End-of-Life Care and Decision Making in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit: An Integrative Review

Survival rates for very preterm and critically ill infants are increasing, raising complex ethical issues for health-care providers and parents who face the challenge of making end-of-life decisions for newborns. The purpose of this integrative literature review was to evaluate parental involvement in end-of-life care and decision making for their infant in the newborn intensive care unit. Findings revealed that establishing good relationships and clear communication between health-care providers and parents builds trust and eases stress placed on parents making decisions about the care of their infant. Palliative care programs provide support for parents and facilitate their decision making. Parents can be educated about how to communicate with health-care providers. Educating nurses on how to provide end-of-life care may also help improve support for parents during this difficult time. Additional research is recommended to examine parents' needs during and after end-of-life care decisions for their newborn.     

Parents' roles in shaping early adolescents' occupational aspirations

Relations among dimensions of parenting and adolescents' occupational aspirations were examined in two specific domains: academics and sports. The sample consisted of 444 seventh graders, with approximately equal numbers of African American and European American males and females, from two-parent nondivorced families. Multiple measures were used as indicators of parents' values and behaviors, youths' values and beliefs, positive identification with parents, and adolescents' occupational aspirations. In the academic domain, parents' values predicted youths' values directly rather than indirectly through their behaviors. In contrast, fathers' behaviors mediated the relation between parents' and youths' values in the sports domain. Positive identification was directly related to adolescents' values (especially about academics); however, positive identification did not moderate the transmission of values from parent to child in either domain. Parents' values predicted adolescents' occupational aspirations via both direct and indirect pathways. Similar results were obtained for African American and European American males and females. These findings highlight the potential role of parents as socializers of achievement-related values, and, ultimately, adolescents' occupational visions of themselves in the future.     

Social interactions and play patterns of parents and toddlers with feminine, masculine, and neutral toys

Children as young as 18 months display sex-stereotyped toy choices. The present study was designed to determine whether parents encourage involvement with sex-stereotyped toys or avoidance of cross-sex-stereotyped toys and to determine whether masculine and feminine toys lead to different patterns of parent-child interaction, regardless of gender. 40 parent-toddler dyads were videotaped while playing with 6 different sets of sex-stereotyped toys. Equal numbers of boys and girls were observed with mothers and fathers. The children showed greater involvement when playing with same-sex-typed toys than with cross-sex toys even when statistically controlling for parents' behaviors. Parents' verbal behaviors, involvement, and proximity to the child differed across toy groups, regardless of the parent's or child's gender. Parents' initial nonverbal responses to the toys, however, were more positive when the toys were stereotyped for the child's and parent's gender than when they were not.     

Professionals' decision-making about out-of-home placements following instances of child abuse

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this research was to study how different groups of child welfare professionals prioritize and use information to make placement decisions following instances of child abuse. METHOD: A total of 90 juvenile court judges and guardians ad litem, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), social workers, and mental health professionals responded to a detailed questionnaire describing four case studies of child physical abuse in which a parent was the perpetrator, the child was either 2 years or 6 years of age, and the abuse was either first time or chronic. Participants rated the impact of specific pieces of information regarding child, family, and system-level characteristics on their decision-making process. RESULTS: Analyses of reactions to these vignettes demonstrate that professional groups use different kinds of information when making decisions about foster care placements. Social workers and mental health providers rely on information about the severity and pattern of abuse and on information about services offered in the past and parental responses to those services. Judges and guardians ad litem rely more heavily on information about the likelihood of a reoccurrence of abuse and the child's ability to recount the abuse, whereas CASA volunteers rely on information about the stability of the family. CONCLUSIONS: Professional group membership, rather than factors such as age or ethnicity of the child or chronicity of abuse, accounts for different patterns of prioritizing and using information when making decisions about whether a child should remain in the home or be placed in foster care. The implications for community-based training and intervention efforts are discussed.