Multiple child care arrangements and child well being: Early care experiences in Australia

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Abstract

Nearly one quarter of Australian children under the age of 5 experience multiple non-parental child care arrangements. Research focused on the relationship between multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional development is limited, particularly in Australia. Evidence from the United States and Europe has linked multiple child care arrangements to increases in children's problem behaviors (de Schipper et al., 2004, Morrissey, 2009), but there is little corresponding evidence on Australian children's child care experiences. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, we examined the associations between concurrent multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional and behavioral development at age 4.5. We found suggestive evidence that child care multiplicity at age 4.5 is related to higher levels of behavior problems. However, this relationship is moderated by prior child care experiences. We found that prior care multiplicity mitigates the relationship between concurrent multiplicity and children's prosocial skills and conduct problems. In contrast, moving from a single arrangement or no non-parental child care to multiple arrangements appears to be negatively associated with children's concurrent socioemotional skills. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Highlights

► This study examined the relationship between child care multiplicity and child socioemotional development in a nationally representative sample of Australian children. ► Results showed that current multiplicity was related to higher levels of behavior problems and lower levels of social skills. ► Prior experiences in multiple care settings moderated the relationship between current multiplicity and child developmental outcomes.

Introduction

Over half of all Australian women with children under the age of 6 and nearly 40% of mothers with children under the age of 2 participate in the labor force (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004). These high rates of maternal labor force participation have led to a corresponding increase in the demand for and use of non-parental child care. Almost one quarter of Australian children under the age of 5 experience multiple, concurrent, non-parental child care arrangements, typically a combination of both formal, center-based care, and informal care (Qu & Wise, 2004). As the fraction of children in any non-parental child care increases with child age, so does the proportion of children with multiple care arrangements. Nearly 40% of Australian children between 4 and 5 years old experience two or more regular care arrangements (Qu & Wise, 2004).

A large literature finds that a range of non-parental child care factors are related to children's socioemotional development. Yet, the relationship between concurrent child care multiplicity, changing arrangements over the course of a day or a week, and child development, particularly in Australia is less well documented. Research from the United States (U.S.) and Europe has linked multiple child care arrangements to increases in problem behaviors (Bacharach and Baumeister, 2003, de Schipper et al., 2004, Loeb et al., 2004, Morrissey, 2009, NICHD, 1998, Tran, 2006, Youngblade, 2003), but there is little corresponding evidence for Australian children. The relationship between child care multiplicity and children's development is likely complex and related to the consistency and predictability of the different care arrangements and to children's background characteristics (NICHD ECCRN, 1997).

Children, particularly in early childhood, thrive in supportive and responsive caregiving environments (Phillips & Adams, 2001). Experiencing multiple child care arrangements might inhibit the formation of supportive relationships as children might not spend enough time in any one setting to develop these relationships. In turn, the lack of positive, secure relationships with adult caregivers could lead to increased behavior problems and decreased prosocial skills. On the other hand, consistent multiple arrangements might be supportive of child development as children have predictable and regular opportunities to establish relationships within each setting but a stressful unstable combination of care arrangements might be less supportive of child outcomes (de Schipper et al., 2004).

Australia offers a unique context in which to study multiple child care arrangements for several reasons. Australia is comparable to the U.S. as a country that counters a predominantly western anglophone culture with a large immigrant population. Parents of young children are similar along numerous characteristics, such as rates of maternal employment. However, Australia is quite distinct on some key policy features. Specific to child care, the Commonwealth Government of Australia provides most parents substantial subsidies for child care and provides funds specifically for the establishment of child care centers in order to improve access to care. With both income and child care subsidies, families have more equitable access to resources and child care during the early childhood years compared with U.S. families. With more generous child care subsidies, Australian families might be able to access and secure more stable and higher quality child care than their American counterparts.

Given the substantial proportion of Australian children who experience multiple child care arrangements, investigating the associations between these experiences and child developmental outcomes is important. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, this paper examines factors associated with the use of multiple child care arrangements and the associations between multiple child care arrangements and child socioemotional development. Data from three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) birth cohort were used. The LSAC data have a wealth of information about children and families as well as detailed child care information. The data allow for the examination of the relationship between multiple care arrangements and children's socioemotional outcomes around the time of school entry, providing one of the first systematic analyses of multiple child care use and child socioemotional development in a nationally representative sample of Australian children.

Concurrent child care multiplicity, by definition, means that children experience more than one child care provider or setting throughout a day or week. Transactional and bioecological developmental theories posit that child development is the product of the interaction of the child with multiple contexts including home and non-parental child care (Bronfenbrenner and Ceci, 1994, Sameroff, 1994). Both theory and research emphasize the importance of these contexts in shaping children's development and developmental trajectories (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998, Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000). The importance of non-parental child care in early childhood as a context for childhood development has received much attention from researchers. While few studies have focused explicitly on the role of child care multiplicity in child development, there have been a few recent studies of care multiplicity and child development (de Schipper et al., 2004, Morrissey, 2009, Tran, 2006, Youngblade, 2003). Children in multiple non-parental child care arrangements are exposed to different peers, caregivers, and settings. This range of varied contexts is likely to have implications for child development, although the direction of this relationship is unclear. A stressful, unstable combination of care arrangements might be less supportive of child outcomes (de Schipper et al., 2004), but consistent multiple arrangements might be supportive or neutral.

Multiple arrangements could be difficult for children to navigate, particularly in early childhood, because child care multiplicity requires children to establish secure relationships with many adults and adjust to a wide range of settings. Frequent changes in child care setting could also disrupt the establishment of relationships with adults and peers and potentially lead to more negative behaviors (Fiese et al., 2002). Children who have more positive relationships with and receive more positive attention from caregivers have better socioemotional outcomes (Elicker et al., 1999, Ritchie and Howes, 2003, Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000), and these relationships can themselves compensate for other negative influences on children, such as economic disadvantage (McLoyd, 1998). Child care multiplicity could limit opportunities to establish and maintain these supportive relationships. In this sense, child care multiplicity might be viewed as a form of child care instability as children move between different non-parental care settings over a day or week. If the expectations and demands differ across these care settings, children might have difficulty adapting to the new situations and modifying their behavior.

On the other hand, children in multiple arrangements might expect these changes and adjust accordingly. Children are not passively affected by the contexts, but rather are active participants. They learn through experiences and interactions. Accordingly, the influence of child care multiplicity on child outcomes is likely a complex and dynamic process and is better understood by taking children's prior care experiences into consideration. From such a longitudinal perspective, children's prior child care experiences are likely to influence their adjustment to their current experiences. Studies have shown that children's own child care histories (NICHD ECCRN, 2006) and their peers’ child care experiences (Dmitrieva, Steinberg, & Belsky, 2007) are important influences on socioemotional development.

Given that prior child care experiences have been shown to influence later adjustment and development, children who have had prior experience navigating multiple care arrangements might draw on this experience and quickly adjust to concurrent multiple arrangements. In other words, these children might find multiple arrangements to be more normative than children with no prior experience in care multiplicity. If this is the case, prior child care multiplicity might buffer children from the negative effects of concurrent multiplicity.

In contrast, prior multiplicity coupled with concurrent multiplicity might exacerbate the relationship between concurrent multiplicity and child development. Children who have experienced multiplicity over time might have more adjustment difficulties because they have limited opportunities to develop stable and secure relationships within each care setting. As such, prior multiplicity might be associated with increased socioemotional problems and concurrent multiplicity might also be associated with these problems. The relationship between multiplicity at both time points might be additive, but it could also be multiplicative. Children who experience multiplicity over time might be at a particular disadvantage due to the number of changes in settings, providers, and peers they experience throughout a day or week and over time. In contrast, movements into multiplicity from a single arrangement or from no prior care experience might prove more challenging for children. Because this group of children does not have prior experience in multiple arrangements, it might be more difficult for them to adapt to the changing providers, peers, and settings of concurrent care multiplicity. In addition, by definition, to move into multiplicity, children must experience a change in child care. As such, movements into multiplicity might be capturing effects of changes in child care rather than multiplicity, per se. Thus, studies examining the relationship between child care multiplicity and child development should carefully consider children's prior care experiences.

Research focused on the number of care arrangements children experience has found that children who had a greater number of child care arrangements prior to school entry exhibited less optimal socioemotional skills and behaviors (Bacharach and Baumeister, 2003, Loeb et al., 2004, NICHD, 1998, Youngblade, 2003) and had more difficulty adjusting to school (Howes, 1988). Experiencing multiple settings in a given day has also been linked to more negative behaviors (Morrissey, 2009, Tran, 2006, Youngblade, 2003). This research points to the importance of concurrent care multiplicity and to the importance of children's experiences over time. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether prior care multiplicity moderates the influence of concurrent multiplicity in terms of children's developmental outcomes.

Studies have also found some evidence that the influence of child care multiplicity might be more pronounced for some children. Boys appear to have more behavior problems than girls in multiple arrangements (Crockenberg and Litman, 1991, Youngblade, 2003). Differences also appear to exist by parental sensitivity (NICHD ECCRN, 1997), and younger children might be less able to adapt to the changes in environments (Cryer et al., 2005). Using child fixed-effect models, Morrissey (2009) found that concurrent multiplicity was related to increased behavior problems, particularly for girls and young children. As a whole, this evidence suggests that multiplicity both concurrently and over time is likely related to child socioemotional outcomes but that the effects might vary by characteristics of children and families.

Both the U.S. and Australia have similar rates of child care multiplicity, and studies have shown that some similar characteristics of families are related to concurrent child care multiplicity. In both Australia and the U.S., family work factors such as non-standard work schedules, part-time work, or long hours are also related to multiple arrangements (Folk and Yi, 1994, Morrissey, 2008, Qu and Wise, 2004, Scott et al., 2005). Among American families, children in low-income households with unmarried parents experience more child care settings (Morrissey, 2008), and low-income mothers have job and economic constraints that influence their decisions to use multiple child care arrangements (Scott et al., 2005). Single working mothers in Australia are more likely to use multiple arrangements as opposed to a single arrangement (Qu & Wise, 2004). In contrast to the U.S., Australian families with higher incomes and families with two working parents also have higher rates of care multiplicity than lower income families (Qu & Wise, 2004). Across both countries, use of multiple arrangements increases with child age, typically peaking around preschool age (Morrissey, 2008, Qu and Wise, 2004). Evidence from the U.S. suggests that families might use multiple arrangements to expose their children to a variety of peers, caregivers, and settings (Capizzano and Adams, 2000, Morrissey, 2008), but there is little corresponding evidence on Australian parental preferences (Bowes et al., 2003). Studies that do not adequately account for factors related to selection into multiple care arrangements might over- or under-estimate the relationship between multiple care arrangements and child developmental outcomes. Given that families in Australia who use multiple child care arrangements might be different from American families using multiple arrangements, understanding the link between multiple care arrangements and child development has potentially important implications for Australian work and family policy.

Although a large proportion of Australian children experience multiple child care arrangements prior to school entry, there is little systematic evidence on the influence these experiences might have on child well being. The present study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining the association between multiple child care arrangements and child well-being in a large, nationally representative sample of Australian children. This study investigates the role of care multiplicity over time, from birth to age 4.5 years, in children's socioemotional and behavioral development and provides a description of who uses multiple arrangements.

The present study addresses three main research questions. First, does concurrent child care multiplicity relate to children's developmental outcomes at age 4.5? Second, does prior care multiplicity moderate any effects of concurrent multiplicity on children's socioemotional skills? Third, does this relationship vary by child gender, age, or family background characteristics? We expect that, as was found in previous studies, concurrent multiple child care arrangements will be related to higher levels of behavior problems and lower levels of prosocial skills. We also expect that multiplicity over time will be negatively related to these outcomes. We expect this relationship between multiplicity and child outcomes to be more pronounced for boys and for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Section snippets

Participants

Data used in this analysis came from Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; Australian Institute of Family Studies [AIFS], 2009). Information about the study measures came from the LSAC Data User Guide (AIFS, 2009). LSAC is a nationally representative sample of Australian children. LSAC focuses on family and social issues and captures information about child development. Data come from direct child assessments as well as surveys of parents, and when

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 presents weighted descriptive statistics for the analytic sample of 3709 children and separately for children in multiple care or a single care arrangement at age 4.5. As shown in the first column of Table 1, approximately 2% of the children sampled have mothers who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and 20% have a foreign-born mother. About 13% of the sample live in households that speak a language other than Australian English, and 71% have lived with two parents since their

Discussion

This study examined the relationship between concurrent and prior child care multiplicity and child socioemotional skills and behaviors in a nationally representative sample of Australian children. First we provided a description of the types of families who use multiple child care arrangements in a nationally representative sample of Australian children. Then, we investigated the associations between care multiplicity and children's socioemotional and behavioral development at age 4.5. We

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