Child Care and Parental Employment in Fragile Families

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this project is to examine the intersection of maternal employment, child care, parenting practices/behavior, and economic factors in families with children born in 1999-2000, in the wake of welfare reform and state requirements for low-income mothers of young children to enter the work force. We are interested in the linkages among onset, intensity, and stability of maternal employment; the type, intensity, quality, and stability of child care arrangements used by the family; the psychological climate of the family (including mental health of parents, relationship between the mother and father, conflict in the household, and stability of household members); and the parenting behavior of the mothers (discipline practices and warmth) and the behavior of the child care providers. We also will examine how maternal employment and childcare in low-income households are associated with child cognitive and emotional well-being at 2 1/2 and 4 years of age (as indicated by child assessments, parental report, and child care provider report). This project would add a childcare module to an ongoing panel study, the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. The sample is 3,400 children from 16 cities across the country (selected to yield a nationally representative sample of unwed births in cities with populations over 200,000). Child care observations and interviews with providers and parents will occur at the 2 1/2 and 4 year follow-up, as well as assessments of child cognitive and emotional development, parental practices, and home environment during home visits at 2 1/2 and 4 years. Our specific aims are: (1) to collect data on parental employment, child care and child well-being via interviews and observations; (2) to describe parental employment and child care patterns in a nationally representative sample of low-income families living in cities with diverse policy contexts; (3) to assess the relative influences of employment, child care, and family context on child well-being and whether changes in these areas predict changes in children's cognitive and emotional well-being; and (4) to augment these models by examining possible moderating child (temperament, health status, gender) and family factors (parental relationships, parental mental health, parenting practices).