Child Care Resources in Low-income Families

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体目标是加强我们对生活在经济弱势城市社区的低收入家庭的儿童保育决策和经验的理解，以及儿童保育经验对儿童和母亲的健康和福祉的影响。20世纪90年代末，福利改革的通过以及相关的社会政策和经济变化导致了低收入和未婚母亲中母亲就业的激增，并导致低收入儿童使用儿童保育的相关增加。然而，研究人员对低收入家庭选择非父母照顾环境以及这些经历对儿童和母亲的健康和福祉的影响的了解有限。基于假定影响人类发展的双向过程的重要性的生物生态学理论，拟议的研究旨在通过三个研究目标来增加这些领域的知识。首先，该研究将评估儿童和家庭的哪些特征与选择儿童保育的类型和质量有关，特别关注那些使家庭面临选择低质量和不可靠的儿童保育风险的因素。其次，该研究将考察儿童保育经历如何促进或抑制经济弱势妇女的经济和心理功能。第三，研究将考虑非父母照顾经历对低收入儿童认知、社会情感和身体发展的影响，随着儿童进入小学的中心过渡。该项目对城市低收入社区的低收入家庭进行深入、多方法的关注，将为政策制定者、教育工作者和研究人员关注的一系列主题提供大量重要的新信息。数据将来自“三城研究”，这是一项针对福利改革后低收入儿童、家庭和社区福祉的纵向、多方法研究。数据包括结构化观察和产妇关于儿童保育质量的报告；儿童、母亲和教师健康状况的直接评估报告；以及母亲和家庭功能的报告。这三个研究目标将通过滞后OLS和多项概率回归分析进行评估。拟议研究的结果将显著扩大目前有限的知识库，解决低收入儿童及其母亲的非父母照顾经验。反过来，研究结果将有助于为联邦、州和地方旨在促进妇女就业和促进低收入儿童健康发展的项目和政策提供信息。在美国，非父母托儿安排已经成为儿童早期发展的重要背景，超过2/3的学龄前儿童参加托儿或学前教育项目。因此，儿童保育环境有可能支持或阻碍儿童的健康发展和母亲的经济和社会功能，在经济和社会资源有限的低收入家庭中，这种可能性可能会加剧。拟议的研究将评估选择家庭的特殊托儿经历的因素，以及这种托儿经历对低收入儿童到童年中期的健康发展的影响，以及对母亲为儿童提供经济和社会支持环境的能力的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad goals of this study are to strengthen our understanding of the child care decisions and experiences of low-income families living in economically disadvantaged urban communities, and of the implications of child care experiences for the health and well-being of children and mothers. The passage of welfare reform and related social policy and economic changes in the late 1990's led to a surge of maternal employment among low-income and unmarried mothers, and to related increases in the use of child care for low-income children. Yet, researchers have limited knowledge concerning low-income families' selection of non-parental care settings and the implications of these experiences for the health and well-being of children and mothers. Based on bioecological theories that posit the importance of bidirectional processes influencing human development, the proposed research seeks to increase knowledge in these arenas through three research aims. First, the study will assess which characteristics of children and families are associated with selection into child care type and quality, paying particular attention to factors that place families at risk for selecting into low quality and unreliable child care. Second, the study will examine how child care experiences promote or inhibit the economic and psychological functioning of economically disadvantaged women. Third, the research will consider the implications of non-parental care experiences on low-income children's cognitive, socioemotional, and physical development, following children through central transitions into elementary school. With an in-depth, multi-method focus on low-income families in low-income urban communities, the project will provide a host of important new information on a set of topics of central concern to policy makers, educators, and researchers. Data will be drawn from the Three-City Study, a longitudinal, multi-method study of the well-being of low-income children, families, and communities in the wake of welfare reform. Data include structured observations and maternal reports of child care quality; direct assessments, child, mother, and teacher reports of child well-being; and maternal reports of mother and family functioning. The three research aims will be assessed through lagged OLS and multinomial probit regression analyses. Results from the proposed research will notably expand the current limited knowledge base addressing the non-parental care experiences of low-income children and their mothers. In turn, results will help to inform federal, state, and local programs and policies aimed at facilitating women's employment and promoting low-income children's healthy development. Non-parental child care arrangements have become an important context for early childhood development in the U.S., with more than 2/3s of preschool age children attending child care or preschool programs. Hence, child care settings have the potential to support or hinder the healthy development of children and the economic and social functioning of mothers, potential that may be exacerbated in low-income families facing limited economic and social resources. The proposed research will assess factors which select families into particular child care experiences, and the implications of such child care experiences on low-income children's healthy development through middle childhood, and on mothers' ability to provide economically and socially supportive environments for children.