The social ecology of school-age child care

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Abstract

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine variations in school-age child care arrangements across the elementary school years as a function of child, family, and contextual factors. Pre-kindergarten family background measures were collected through parent questionnaires and interviews. Follow-up interviews with 466 parents provided information on children's care experiences in grades 1 through 5. Some care arrangements (e.g., self care) showed considerable continuity, whereas other arrangements (e.g., school programs) changed substantially from year-to-year. Increases in use were found for self-care, sibling care, neighbor care, and activity-based care; use of day care decreased across years. Children living with working and/or single mothers spent more time in non-parent care, as did boys with behavior problems. Time spent in specific care arrangements varied as a function of child sex, behavioral adjustment, ethnicity, family socio-economic status, mothers' employment, and parents' marital status. These findings underscore the importance of developmental and ecological-contextual factors in families' choices of care arrangements.

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    Instead, age (or grade) is usually treated as a control variable. Nonetheless, age does predict the types of activities in which young people participate (e.g., Grossman et al., 2002; Laird, Pettit, Dodge, & Bates, 1998; Vandell, Pierce, & Dadmisman, 2005) and activity types, in turn, differentially predict developmental outcomes (e.g., Barber, Eccles, & Stone, 2001; Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001; Larson, Hansen, & Moneta, 2006; Mahoney et al., 2009). Moreover, Riggs and Greenberg (2004a) found that an ASP for Latino children was linked to larger reading gains for younger vs. older children, suggesting that age can moderate activity-related outcomes.

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