Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Ecological Patterning and Effects of Child Care Markets

托儿市场的生态模式和影响在过去的50年里，随着母亲们大量涌入职场，孩子们也以同样惊人的趋势进入了制度化和非母性的托儿环境。这些巨大的社会变化引发了关于制度化照顾对儿童福祉影响的广泛争论。然而，我们对家庭安排照顾孩子的生态和组织环境知之甚少。该项目探讨了不同社区的当地托儿市场如何以及为何存在差异，以及这种差异如何影响家庭的托儿选择和母亲的就业机会。除了理论贡献之外，该项目还将加强目前对儿童保育作为一个组织领域的有限理解，应对公平获取、质量和安全差异以及寻找护理的结构性障碍等问题。政策制定者和社会倡导团体寻求改善儿童保育的机会和质量，特别是在儿童保育的政治兴趣日益浓厚的时候，研究结果将会引起他们的兴趣。本文采用混合方法研究托儿市场的生态模式及其影响。该项目基于比较和多标量研究设计，从两个州两个城市的四个社区中提取数据。第一阶段将儿童保育提供者的州行政记录和媒体档案与美国两个最大城市（马萨诸塞州波士顿和德克萨斯州休斯顿）的美国社区调查数据联系起来，这两个城市体现了截然不同的监管和社会政策环境。利用空间分析和逻辑回归，该项目分析了当地托儿市场的质量、安全性和组成如何随着社区劣势的变化而变化。第一阶段的结果为第二阶段提供了基础，在第二阶段中，每个城市中的两个社区，每个社区都具有相似的社会人口特征，但儿童保育市场却截然不同，被选中进行民族志研究。在每个社区内，将对三组利益相关者进行半结构化的深度访谈：(1)母亲，(2)护理提供者，(3)官僚和非营利工作者。访谈将提供有关市场如何形成、市场变化的原因以及对家庭的影响的数据。第一阶段的地理编码数据集、第二阶段的档案材料和非保密采访记录将向公众开放。总结报告也将提供给在研究社区内工作的非营利组织。

The Ecological Patterning and Effects of Child Care MarketsPI: Josh PacewiczCo-PI: Jennifer BouekAs mothers have flooded into the workforce over the past fifty years, children have entered into institutionalized and non maternal care environments in equally dramatic trends. These seismic social shifts have generated widespread debate around the implications of institutionalized care for child wellbeing. Yet, we know little about the ecological and organizational environments in which families arrange for their children's care. This project questions how and why local child care markets vary across communities and how this variation impacts families' child care choices and maternal employment opportunities. Beyond theoretical contributions, this project will sharpen the currently limited understanding of child care as an organizational field, responding to questions of equitable access, variations in quality and safety, and structural barriers to finding care. Results will be of interest to policymakers and social advocacy groups seeking to improve access to and the quality of child care, especially at a time of rising political interest in child care. This dissertation employs mixed-methods to examine the ecological patterning and effects of child care markets. The project is based upon a comparative and multiscalar research design, drawing data from four neighborhoods within two cities in two states. Phase one links state administrative records of child care providers and media archives with American Community Survey data within two of the largest American cities (Boston, MA and Houston, TX) which embody contrasting regulatory and social policy environments. Using spatial analysis and logistic regression, the project analyzes how the quality, safety and composition of local child care markets varies as a function of neighborhood disadvantage. Results from phase one provide the foundation for phase two, in which two neighborhoods within each city, each with similar socio demographic profiles but contrasting child care markets, are chosen for ethnographic study. Within each neighborhood, semi-structured in-depth interviews will be conducted among three groups of stakeholders: (1) mothers, (2) care providers, and (3) bureaucrats and nonprofit workers. Interviews will provide data on how markets are formed, why they vary, and the implications for families. The geocoded dataset from phase one, archive materials and non-confidential interview transcripts from phase two will be made available to the public. Summary reports will also be provided to nonprofit groups working within the communities of study.