2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

nonparental childcare arrangement for the focal children was center care, followed by relative care, andcare by a friend or neighbor.Maternal employment and/or school enrollment continues to be the strongest predictor of childcare use.The only other significant factors predicting childcare use are residence in the Glades TGA andrace/nativity. In particular, both U.S.-born and foreign-born black mothers were significantly more likelythan foreign-born Hispanic mothers to use childcare.Additional bivariate analyses suggest that different types of childcare arrangements are associated with anumber of maternal characteristics, including race/ethnicity, nativity, education, employment, andincome. Among black mothers, over half (65%) used center care, and 14 percent had a relative who tookcare of their children. Among Hispanic mothers, almost half (46%) used center care, and one-fifth (20%)relied on a friend or neighbor to care for their children. Furthermore, foreign-born mothers were morelikely than U.S.-born mothers to use friends or neighbors to care for their children, while U.S.-bornmothers were more likely to rely on relatives. However, equal proportions of U.S.-born and foreign-bornmothers used center care (55%). This is a change from the previous year when U.S.-born mothers weremore likely to use center care.In general, we attribute differences in the use of different types of childcare arrangements to a variety offactors, but one important factor is cost. The survey data indicate that use of center care, in particular, isrelated to having a childcare subsidy through Family Central. Mothers who received a subsidy were muchmore likely to have their child in a childcare center, Head Start, or prekindergarten program (82%) thanwere mothers who did not receive a subsidy (42%). Over one-third (39%) of mothers not using a subsidyrelied on friends or relatives to care for their children.As reported in the third study report (Spielberger et al., 2009), the qualitative data suggest several otherfactors, in addition to maternal employment, that shape mothers’ decisions about the use of childcare. Oneis the greater availability of formal childcare options for children 3 years and older than for infants andtoddlers and, correspondingly, the mothers’ growing knowledge about the options in their communities.In addition, as children become more communicative, more self-sufficient, and more in control of theirbehavior with age, mothers become more comfortable with the idea of nonparental childcare and begin torecognize the importance of experiences with other children and adults for their cognitive and socialdevelopment.Finally, an analysis of the stability of childcare over time indicates that a majority of the focal childrenexperienced fairly stable childcare arrangements during the first 4 years of their lives, meaning there wereonly a small number of transitions in childcare. However, about 44 percent of the children experiencedChapin Hall at the University of Chicago 73