Reasons for choosing child care: associations with family factors, quality, and satisfaction

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Abstract

Demographic and family process factors related to the reasons mothers selected a particular care arrangement for their 3-year-old children were examined along with the type and quality of care the children received and the mothers’ satisfaction with that care. Reasons for selecting care were categorized as focused on quality, practicality, or preference for a specific type of care arrangement. Mothers in high-income families and those who worked fewer hours were more likely to select a child-care arrangement based on its quality than on practical concerns such as cost, hours of operation, or location. Mothers who reported higher stress related to parenting were more likely to choose care because of practical issues. Mothers who chose care based on quality were least likely to use care provided by a relative. In addition, mothers choosing care because of its quality were more likely to place their children in higher quality care, as judged by outside observers, than those who chose based on practical concerns. However, mothers who chose care because of a preference for a particular type of care (center-based, home-based, or relative) received higher quality care than either of the other two groups. Mothers who chose care because of practical concerns were least satisfied with their child’s care.

Introduction

When parents seek child care, they have a number of choices to make. They can decide to arrange care by a relative, by an unrelated adult in a home setting, or in a child care center. Furthermore, within these types of care, parents may have several different options available to them. Each possible arrangement will differ in several ways. Some of these differences involve practical considerations for parents: cost, hours of availability, and location, for example. Child-care arrangements also differ on characteristics that are typically used as indices of quality: availability of toys and play materials, amount and organization of space, training of the care providers, program emphasis (e.g., academic preparation, social development), and the number of adults and children present.

There is not a lot of literature on the reasoning processes parents use when choosing care for their young children. Most studies examining parental choice of child care arrangements have focused on demographic factors associated with particular care types (e.g., Fuller et al 1996, Lehrer 1983, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network 1997; see Pungello & Kurtz-Costes, 1999, for a review). In general, income is found to be the most important factor influencing child care choice, with higher income families selecting in-home care by a nonrelative and child care centers at higher rates than families with lower incomes who choose child-care homes and relative care more frequently.

Those studies in which parents have been asked about the process of choosing child care report conflicting results. In one study of parents who called an information and referral agency, health and safety concerns were rated as most important by the majority of parents, and the caregiver’s relationship with the children was second (Bogat & Gensheimer, 1986). In another survey of parents working in a health care institution, health and safety concerns were rated fourth in a list of factors that were most influential in parents’ child care decisions, while the caregiver-child relationship was rated first (Rassin, Beach, McCormick, Niebuhr, & Weller, 1991). For the most part, parents rate quality characteristics (e.g., provider relationship with child, educational emphasis, physical environment, equipment, staff training) as being more important than practical ones (e.g., location, hours of operation, availability, cost) (Britner and Phillips 1995, Fuqua and Labensohn 1986, Rassin et al 1991). However, in one large study, mothers most often cited location and hours as important factors in choosing care (Johansen, Leibowitz, & Waite, 1996). At times, parents find that issues of quality must take second place to issues of practicality. For example, Australian parents who were interviewed about child care choices reported that they felt most strongly about the quality of care and education their children received, but these considerations were eclipsed by a need for a care arrangement with flexible hours (Rodd & Milikan, 1994).

The availability of particular types of child care arrangements also limits parents’ options in some cases. This is particularly true for parents of infants (Pungello & Kurtz-Costes, 1999) and for low-income families who are not able to obtain subsidies for child care (Bowen & Neenan, 1993). Geographic variation in availability of care types has also been reported, with center care being more widely available in the southeastern U.S. and child-care homes more prevalent in the West (Kisker, Hofferth, Phillips, & Farquhar, 1991).

Family demographics influence parents’ reasons for choosing their child care arrangements. Single parents rank practical factors such as cost and location higher in importance than do married parents, who rank quality higher Turner and Smith 1983, Turner and Gallegos 1984. Similarly, parents with higher levels of education and higher incomes have been found to emphasize quality characteristics when choosing a care arrangement; parents who work longer hours are more influenced by practical issues (Johansen et al., 1996). Family factors other than demographics have been less well studied. Johansen et al. (1996) reported that mothers who are stressed (by working more hours and/or having larger families) put more emphasis on practical concerns when choosing care. Howes and Stewart (1987) found that mothers who show greater sensitivity to their children are also more likely to select a care arrangement based on its quality.

It is not entirely clear that parents’ judgments of quality factors match those professionals use as indices of quality, or that parents are always knowledgeable about what factors to look for in choosing care. In one survey of 275 parents, 92% stated that they knew what qualities to look for in a child care arrangement, yet when the parents were asked to name some of the specific qualities they would look for, 50% were unable to do so (Long, Wilson, Kutnick, & Telford, 1996). In many studies, parental satisfaction is used as an index of the quality of care children receive. However, some investigators have found that parental satisfaction with care may not reflect actual quality. For example, parental satisfaction with care tends to be high when parent involvement is encouraged and the care provider listens to the parent Britner and Phillips 1995, Fuqua and Labensohn 1986. Parents typically report high levels of satisfaction even though their care arrangements vary widely Bogat and Gensheimer 1986, Long et al 1996, Rassin et al 1991, Turner and Gallegos 1984. Shpancer (1998) interprets these findings as an effect of parents’ doing the best they can to cope with marketplace constraints. Other authors suggest that parents, in general, are simply not knowledgeable about what constitutes quality care (Rassin et al., 1991) or do not investigate the quality of care their children receive Bogat and Gensheimer 1986, Long et al 1996.

To date, there have been no studies examining whether the actual quality of care children receive is related to the reasons parents choose care arrangements. Thus, we do not know whether parents who report choosing care based on quality indicators actually place their children in higher quality care settings than parents who use practical criteria for care selection. The present study uses measures of observed child care quality along with parent reports of their satisfaction with the care received to determine whether differences in parents’ reasoning about child care result in different experiences for their children.

The present study expands upon previous research in several ways. The sample is a large and diverse group of mothers in 10 different locations across the U.S., each of whom was asked to name the most important reason she chose her 3-year-old child’s care arrangement. The family factors examined for their association with these mothers’ reasons for choosing care included, in addition to demographic variables, mothers’ observed responsiveness to the child and perceived stress associated with parenting. The inclusion of these process-oriented variables allows a multidimensional look at family characteristics that are related to child-care choices. The present study also goes beyond previous work in including an analysis of the actual choices of type and quality of care made by mothers whose reasoning about child care selection is known. Both the type and the observed quality of care arrangements selected by mothers who report different reasons for choosing care are examined along with mothers’ reported satisfaction with that care so that the relation between satisfaction and quality can also be determined.

The specific research questions addressed are:

  • 1.

    How are family factors—demographic characteristics, maternal responsiveness, and parenting stress—related to mothers’ reasons for choosing a child care arrangement?

  • 2.

    What type of care arrangements are selected by mothers who report different reasons for making their choice?

  • 3.

    Does the quality of care received by children vary according to the reason their mother chose that care?

  • 4.

    Is mothers’ reported satisfaction with a care arrangement related to their reasons for choosing that care?

  • 5.

    Is mothers’ reported satisfaction with a care arrangement related to the observed quality of care her child receives?

Section snippets

Participants

Participants in this study were part of a larger longitudinal project examining child care and child development. The families were recruited at the time of a child’s birth from 31 hospitals located in or near Little Rock, AR; Irvine, CA; Lawrence, KS; Boston, MA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Charlottesville, VA; Morganton, NC; Seattle, WA; and Madison, WI. During selected 24-hour sampling periods in 1991, 8,986 women giving birth were visited in the hospital. Of these, 5,416 met the

Mothers’ reasons for choosing care

More than half the mothers interviewed in the study (354 of 633, or 55.9%) reported that quality was the most important factor in selecting a care arrangement. Of these, 275 considered quality of care providers most important, 23 considered quality of the environment or equipment most important, and 56 considered quality of the program most important. Another 137 mothers (21.7%) considered practical factors to be most important: 40 cited cost, 21 hours, 64 location, and 12 availability. In

Discussion

Although a wide variety of child care arrangements exist, mothers’ choices of care are sometimes constrained by their financial and employment situations. Based on previous studies, it was hypothesized that family demographic variables would be related to whether mothers chose care based primarily on practical or quality factors Johansen et al 1996, Turner and Smith 1983. This hypothesis was supported in the present study in that mothers whose family incomes were lower and who worked more hours

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by a grant (#25430) from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development to the University of Kansas. The NICHD Study of Early Child Care is a study directed by a Steering Committee and supported by NICHD through a cooperative agreement (U10) that calls for scientific collaboration between the grantees and the NICHD staff. We acknowledge the support of NICHD and the coinvestigators, site coordinators, and research assistants who collected the

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