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About the Series
Assessing the New Federalism is a multi-year Urban Institute project designed to analyze the devolution of responsibility from the federal government to the states for health care, income security, employment and training programs, and social services. Researchers monitor program changes and fiscal developments. In collaboration with Child Trends, Inc., the project studies changes in family well-being. The project aims to provide timely, nonpartisan information to inform public debate and to help state and local decisionmakers carry out their new responsibilities more effectively.
Key components of the project include a household survey, studies of policies in 13 states, and a database with information on all states and the District of Columbia, available at the Urban Institute's Web site. This paper is one in a series of occasional papers analyzing the information from these and other sources.
Contents
Executive Summary
Arranging child care for school-age children presents a difficult set of challenges for working families. Although the time a child spends in school provides a supervised environment for a significant number of hours each day while parents work, many families experience "gaps" between these hours and parental work hours. The different types of care used to fill these gaps and the amount of time children spend in care vary widely across families and reflect a number of socioeconomic, demographic, and contextual factors. In addition, different out-of-school care arrangements can assist in keeping school-age children safe, provide oversight to ensure that they avoid high-risk behaviors, or, conversely, put children at risk of physical injury, emotional harm, or poor social and intellectual development.
This report investigates the different types of child care arrangements, including unsupervised "self-care," that families with working mothers use for their school-age children. Specifically, we examine how child care patterns differ by the age of the child, family income, race and ethnicity, parental time available to care for children (based on family structure and employment), whether the mother works "traditional" versus "nontraditional" hours, and by state.
Data and Methods
This report uses data from the 1997 National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) to investigate the out-of-school child care patterns of children between the ages of 6 and 12 with employed mothers. For each demographic group, the report examines the primary child care arrangement, which is defined as the type of child care—either supervised or self-care—used for the most number of hours while the mother is working. The types of supervised care include before- and after-school programs, family child care (care by a nonrelative in the provider’s home), baby-sitter or nanny care (care by a nonrelative in the child’s home), and relative care (care by a relative either in the child’s or the provider’s home). Self-care is defined as regular amounts of time each week in which the child is left alone or left with a sibling younger than age 13. In addition to examining the primary child care arrangement, the report also focuses on the use of any self-care—the extent to which children regularly spend any hours alone or with a sibling younger than age 13 each week (regardless of whether it is used as the primary arrangement).
Findings
Child Care Patterns of School-Age Children with Employed Mothers by Age
Of the nonparental child care arrangements analyzed in this report, before- and after-school programs and relatives are the most commonly reported among 6- to 9-year-old children, with 21 percent of children in this age group in each of these forms of care while the mother is working.
Five percent of 6- to 9-year-olds have self-care as their primary child care arrangement while the parent is working. Overall, 10 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds regularly spend any time in self-care.
Like the younger children, a significant percentage of 10- to 12-year-old children rely on relatives as their primary care provider (17 percent). However, smaller percentages of these children are in before- and after-school programs (10 percent).
Twenty-four percent of 10- to 12-year-old children have self-care as the primary form of care while the mother is working.
Thirty-five percent of 10- to 12-year-old children regularly spend any time in self-care each week. The percentage of children regularly spending any time in self-care increases as children grow older: 7 percent of 6-year-olds spend any time in self-care, compared with 44 percent of 12-year-olds.
Child Care Patterns of Families with Different Characteristics
Different Family Incomes
Six- to nine-year-old children from lower-income families spend more time in their supervised primary child care arrangements than higher-income children (14.5 hours per week, as opposed to 12.3 hours per week).
Among 10- to 12-year-olds, low-income children are less likely to be in before- and after-school programs than children from higher-income families (7 percent, compared with 11 percent).
Lower-income 10- to 12-year-old children are significantly less likely to use self-care as the primary child care arrangement than higher-income children (19 percent, compared with 27 percent). Lower-income children are also less likely to regularly spend any time in self-care: 28 percent of lower-income 10- to 12-year-olds regularly spend any time in self-care, compared with 38 percent of higher-income children.
Different Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds
Among younger school-age children, black children are more likely to use before- and after-school programs while the mother is working than Hispanic children (27 percent, compared with 16 percent).
Among 10- to 12-year-olds, white children are twice as likely as Hispanic children, and almost three times as likely as black children, to use self-care as the primary form of care (30 percent for whites, compared with 15 percent for Hispanics and 11 percent for blacks).
Different Amounts of Parental Time to Care for Children
Six- to nine-year-old children in families where parents are least available to care for their children—a single parent or two parents working full-time—are the most reliant on before- and after-school programs (36 percent and 24 percent, respectively) and relatives (27 percent and 25 percent, respectively).
Among 10- to 12-year-olds, we find that relatives are caring for 22 percent of children with single mothers employed full-time, and 18 percent are in before- and after-school programs. These proportions fall to 12 percent and 4 percent, respectively, for children in two-parent families where one or both parents work less than full-time.
Different Work Schedules—Traditional versus Nontraditional
Among 6- to 9-year olds, children of mothers working a traditional schedule (primarily between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.) are three times more likely to have a before- or after-school program as their primary child care arrangement than children with mothers who work a nontraditional schedule (24 percent, compared with 8 percent).
Although 6- to 9-year-olds with mothers working nontraditional hours are less likely to be in a supervised nonparental child care arrangement, those who are in supervised care are there much longer than are children whose mothers work traditional hours (18.7 hours on average, compared with 12.0 hours).
Self-care as a primary child care arrangement is much less common among 10- to 12-year-olds with employed mothers working nontraditional hours than among children of mothers who work traditional schedules (17 percent, compared with 26 percent).
Child Care Patterns of School-Age Children in Selected States
For both 6- to 9-year-olds and 10- to 12-year-olds, the use of all forms of supervised care and self-care varies significantly across the states examined.
Among 6- to 9-year-olds, the proportion of children using before- and after-school programs is twice as high in Florida (31 percent) as in Mississippi, Washington, and Wisconsin (14, 14, and 15 percent, respectively).
Thirty-four percent of 6- to 9-year-olds with working mothers have relatives as their primary child care provider while their mothers are working in Mississippi, compared with 13 percent in Minnesota and 15 percent in Washington.
The proportion of younger children regularly spending any time in self-care varies from 17 percent in Minnesota to 5 percent in Michigan and 6 percent in Alabama, California, and Mississippi.
Among 10- to 12-year-olds, 56 percent regularly spend any time in self-care in Minnesota each week, compared with 22 percent of children in Mississippi and 23 percent in Alabama and New Jersey.
Introduction
Child care for school-age children is a concern for millions of American families. This issue is also important to policymakers, who have become aware of the impact that out-of-school arrangements can have on working families and their children. Many parents rely on out-of-school child care arrangements in order to work, and their choice of arrangement can affect the health, safety, and development of their children.
Arranging child care for school-age children can present a number of challenges. Although school provides a supervised environment for a significant number of hours while parents work, many families experience "gaps" between school hours and parental work hours. These gaps can be for long periods of time, as many parents work longer hours than their children spend in school or work outside of their children’s school schedules.1 While some working parents try to avoid these gaps by organizing their work schedules around their children’s school hours, many families must arrange child care to cover the gap between school and work.
Parents who arrange child care may use supervised arrangements—such as before- and after-school programs, family child care homes, nannies or baby-sitters, or a relative—or they may leave children to care for themselves. The use of different types of care and the amount of time children spend in care vary widely across families and reflect a number of factors, including parental preferences; economic resources; the cost, supply, and quality of different care options; and the amount of information parents have about different child care arrangements.
This paper examines the patterns of child care for school-age children with employed mothers. These patterns are important because the types of out-of-school care arrangements that parents use can affect children’s school performance, social adjustment, and the likelihood that children will eventually engage in such behaviors as smoking, alcohol and drug use, sexual activity, and crime (Galambos and Maggs 1991; Richardson et al. 1989). For example, certain forms of out-of-school care can assist school-age children in their academic performance and social adjustment. Indeed, attendance in high-quality programs can give school-age children greater exposure to academic and enrichment activities and may be linked to improved school adjustment and behavior (Posner and Vandell 1994).
Supervised out-of-school child care arrangements also assist in keeping children out of harm’s way. Crime and victimization rates among school-age children are at their highest in the hours directly after school (Snyder, Sickmund, and Bilchik 1999). The use of supervised out-of-school care arrangements can provide children safe environments while parents are working while also providing the necessary oversight to ensure that children avoid high-risk behaviors.
Conversely, unstructured hours spent with little or no supervision can put children at risk of physical injury, emotional and psychological harm, and poor physical, social and intellectual development (Kerrebrock 1999; Peterson 1989). Although the effects of being unsupervised vary depending upon the age at which the child is left alone, whether the child is actually alone or with peers, and the characteristics of the child, research shows that regularly leaving a child unsupervised can contribute to negative child outcomes under certain conditions. For example, children in low-income families left unsupervised have been shown to display greater antisocial behavior than children in supervised care (Vandell and Ramanan 1991). In addition, studies have shown that young school-age children (third graders) who spend time unsupervised exhibit greater behavioral problems than those who do not (Posner and Vandell 1999).2
A number of current policies attempt to increase access to and affordability of care for school-age children. In 1998, the parents of over a half-million low-income children ages 6 to 12 received child care subsidies that helped pay for supervised child care (Miller 2000). In addition, federal allocations for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, a program that provides enrichment activities to children in after-school hours, have increased from $1 million to $450 million over the last four years—and current legislative proposals seek to increase funding even further.
Data and Methods
Data from the 1997 National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) are used to investigate out-of-school child care patterns of children ages 6 to 12 with employed mothers.3 The NSAF collected child care information on a nationally representative sample of children, as well as on representative samples of children in 12 states.4 For randomly selected children in the sample households, interviews were conducted with the person most knowledgeable about the child. From these respondents, data were collected about the types of care used and about the number of hours that the child spent in each form of care.5 While the "most knowledgeable adult" can be any member of the household, the mother was the respondent for 76 percent of the children. Therefore, for simplicity, the term "mother" is used in this paper to refer to this most knowledgeable adult. This analysis focuses on school-age children ages 6 to 12 whose mothers were interviewed during the nonsummer months.6 Because of the particular challenges facing working parents, this analysis deals only with school-age children whose mothers are employed. Children whose mothers (most knowledgeable adult) do not work outside the home are excluded from this analysis (approximately 34 percent).
Analyzing Patterns of School-Age Child Care
In this paper, we describe the child care patterns of school-age children with employed mothers in 1997, focusing only on out-of-school child care arrangements used during the nonsummer months. During the school year, almost all 6- to-12-year-old children attend school for an average of 34 hours per week, making school the primary "child care arrangement" for most children.7 Therefore, those child care arrangements used to supplement the hours children spend in school are the particular focus here.
Since child care patterns change dramatically as children get older, we examine the out-of-school child care arrangements for 6- to 9-year-olds with working mothers separately from 10- to 12-year-olds. We first analyze these patterns for all children and then look more in depth at a number of different demographic groups, specifically looking at how these patterns differ by income, race and ethnicity, parental time available to care for children (based on family structure and employment), and whether the mother works "traditional" versus "nontraditional" hours. Finally, we examine how these patterns vary across the 12 states.
The Primary Child Care Arrangement
For each group, we first examine the type of child care used for the most number of hours while the mother is working—the primary child care arrangement.8 This arrangement is the type of care (other than school) that is most relied upon for the purpose of supporting work. We investigate the different types of primary child care arrangements as well as the number of hours that children spend in these arrangements. Specifically, we look at:
Supervised nonparental child care arrangements. The arrangements analyzed in this report include before- and after-school programs,9 family child care (care by a nonrelative in the provider’s home), baby-sitter or nanny care (care by a nonrelative in the child’s home), and relative care (care by a relative either in the child’s or the provider’s home).10
Unsupervised care or "self-care." This includes regular time each week in which the child is not being supervised while the mother works. The NSAF asked the mother of the child explicitly whether the child "regularly spent any time alone each week or stayed alone with a sibling younger than 13" and about the hours that the child spent unsupervised. Children who spend the most number of hours caring for themselves or with a sibling under 13 while their mothers work are considered to have unsupervised care or self-care as the primary child care arrangement.
Parent care/other care. This category includes the proportion of children whose mother did not report using any of the supervised or unsupervised forms of child care noted above while she worked. For children in this category, parents are arranging their work schedules around the school day to care for their children or using enrichment activities such as lessons or sports. Because of the way data were collected in the NSAF, these activities are not defined as child care in this paper.11 It is also possible that some parents who are uncomfortable reporting that they leave their child alone while they work may be captured in this category.
The Use of Any Supervised or Unsupervised Care
Given that some employed parents use more than one out-of-school child care arrangement for their school-age children, or regularly use child care for purposes other than to care for their children while they work, examining the primary child care arrangement may not capture the overall use of supervised care and self-care. Consequently, to provide a more complete picture of child care patterns, in our examination of the child care arrangements of all school-age children with employed mothers (see next section), we investigate the extent to which children spend any hours in supervised or unsupervised settings each week (whether or not they are used as the primary arrangement). Because of the concern about self-care and its potential effects on children, we provide information on the extent to which children spend any hours in self-care in the other sections of the paper.
Understanding the Data
There are a number of issues to keep in mind when considering the data presented in this paper. First, these data are based on parental self-reports, and respondents may tend to underreport behaviors that they feel are socially undesirable. This tendency is especially relevant with respect to our estimates of the percentage of children in self-care, as respondents might be reluctant to acknowledge that they regularly leave their children alone (O’Connell and Casper 1995). To reduce the extent of underreporting, special attention was given to the self-care question.12 Even though the NSAF question wording most likely improved the reporting of self-care, the numbers reported here are likely to be conservative estimates of the use of self-care.
Second, these data simply show the choices that parents make; they do not tell why parents choose the types of care they do. Therefore, the extent to which these findings reflect parental preferences (i.e., parents choose the care option they desire) or constraints (i.e., parents have no other options but to choose a specific form of care) is not known.
Third, the NSAF asked mothers only about what are traditionally considered child care arrangements. The survey did not ask about regular enrichment activities, such as lessons or sports, which employed mothers may sometimes use to care for their children while they work.
Fourth, the NSAF asked respondents only about regular child care arrangements—those that occurred "at least once a week in the last month." Respondents using a complicated array of arrangements that would not qualify as "regular" would not be identified in this study as using child care. For example, children who are occasionally left home alone or at a relative’s home while their parents run errands are not identified by the survey as having a regular child care arrangement.
Fifth, the data on child care arrangements focus on school year child care and are not intended to represent summer child care arrangements. Arranging child care during the summer months can pose special problems for working families with school-age children, as most children are not in school. In addition, working families have different types of child care options (such as summer camps) available to them during the summer months. An analysis focusing on child care arrangements during the summer months would most likely yield different results.
Finally, the NSAF does not provide any information about the time of day that the arrangements are used. While most of the care described in this report is likely used in the hours directly before or after school, the arrangements could be used by parents at other times as well.
Child Care Patterns of School-Age Children with Employed Mothers, by Age
The years between ages 6 and 12 are a time of social and emotional change. As children progress through these formative years toward adolescence and adulthood, they become more competent, self-aware, and independent (Eccles 1999). Accordingly, as children grow older, parental decisions about their child care arrangements begin to change. For example, parents who may not feel comfortable leaving their 6-year-old child alone may feel differently when the child is 12. Therefore, it is important to look separately at the child care patterns of younger and older children within this age range. Examined below are the patterns of child care for all 6- to 9-year-old and 10- to 12-year-old children of employed mothers. Generally, as children grow older, parents are less likely to use the types of supervised child care arrangements analyzed here and are more likely to use self-care.
Younger School-Age Children (Ages 6 to 9)
Primary Care Arrangements
Supervised Child Care. More than half (55 percent) of 6- to 9-year-olds with employed mothers are in one of the supervised nonparental primary care arrangements analyzed here while the mother works (table 1). Before- and after-school programs and relatives are the most common arrangements reported, with 21 percent of children in this age group in each of these forms of care. Much smaller percentages of children are in family child care (8 percent) or in the care of a nanny or baby-sitter (5 percent). Six- to nine-year-old children with supervised primary child care arrangements spend on average 13.1 hours per week in that form of care.
|
| Table 1 Out-of-School Child Care for Children Ages 6 to 12 with Employed Mothers,a by Age of Child (1997) |
| |
Ages 6-9 |
Ages 10-12 |
Ages 6-12 |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
55** |
35 |
47 |
| Type of Supervised Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
21** |
10 |
16 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
8** |
5 |
7 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
5* |
4 |
4 |
| Relative (%) |
21* |
17 |
19 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
13.1** |
11.1 |
12.5 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as the Primary Arrangement (%) |
5** |
24 |
13 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
6.6 |
6.2 |
6.3 |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
40 |
40 |
40 |
| Any Supervised Carec |
| Children in Any Supervised Arrangement (%) |
62** |
43 |
54 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Arrangements (Mean) |
14.4** |
11.6 |
13.4 |
| Any Self-Cared |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
10** |
35 |
21 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
4.6 |
5.5 |
5.3 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
65 |
55 |
58 |
| 5-9 (%) |
20** |
30 |
27 |
| 10+ (%) |
15 |
15 |
15 |
Source: Urban Institute calculations from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families.
Notes: Percentages do not sum to 100 as a result of rounding. * Indicates that the difference between 6- to 9-year-old children and 10- to 12-year-old children is significant at the .1 level. ** Indicates significance at the .05 level. Standard errors and sample sizes for each estimate are presented here in appendix table 2A.
a. Interviews were conducted with the person in the household most knowledgeable about the child. While this can be any member of the household, the mother is the respondent for 76 percent of the children. For simplicity, the term "mother" is used here.
b. The primary child care arrangement is defined as the arrangement used for the most hours while the parent is working.
c. Any supervised care is defined as regularly spending any amount of time in a supervised arrangement regardless of whether or not it is used while the mother is working.
d. Any self-care is defined as regularly spending any amount of time alone (or with a sibling younger than age 13) regardless of whether or not it is used while the mother is working. |
Self-Care. In addition, a small but not insignificant percentage (5 percent) of 6- to 9-year-olds with employed mothers have self-care as their primary form of out-of-school child care while their mothers are working. Younger school-age children using self-care as a primary child care arrangement use it for far fewer hours (6.6 hours) than children using supervised care.
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, 40 percent of the children in this age group were not reported as having a primary child care arrangement—supervised or unsupervised—while their mothers worked, suggesting that parents are either arranging their schedules around the school day to care for the children themselves, or using enrichment activities such as lessons to care for the child while the mother is working.
Any Hours in Supervised or Unsupervised Care
Examining primary child care arrangements provides only a partial picture of child care patterns. For example, 6- to 9-year-old children using self-care as their primary arrangement may also use supervised arrangements. Conversely, children using supervised care as their primary arrangement may also use self-care for some period of time. As a result, it is also important to examine the extent to which families use supervised or unsupervised care regularly for any hours—regardless of whether or not it is the primary care arrangement. Looking at the extent to which children spend any hours in care reveals that:
Sixty-two percent of younger school-age children with employed mothers regularly spend time in the supervised child care arrangements we examined. Six- to 9-year-old children in supervised arrangements spend an average of 14.4 hours per week in the supervised arrangements analyzed here.
The percentage of children of employed mothers regularly spending any time in self-care is substantially larger than the percentage of children using self-care as a primary child care arrangement. Ten percent of 6- to 9-year-old children with employed mothers spend at least some time in self-care regularly.
Among this age group, the percentage of children spending any hours in self-care increases from 7 percent of 6-year-olds to 19 percent of 9-year-olds (figure 1).
Six- to nine-year-old children with employed mothers spending any time in self-care average 4.6 hours per week in self-care, with most children spending very few hours alone each week. Sixty-five percent of younger school-age children who spend any time in self-care spend between one and four hours per week caring for themselves. However, 15 percent of children this age in self-care spend 10 or more hours per week alone.
Older School-Age Children (Ages 10 to 12)
Primary Care Arrangements
Supervised Child Care. Compared with younger children, the supervised nonparental child care arrangements analyzed here play less of a role in the lives of 10- to 12-year-old children. Thirty-five percent of children in this age group are primarily in these supervised arrangements while their mothers work, 20 percentage points less than younger school-age children. Like the 6- to 9-year-olds, a significant percentage of older children rely on relatives as their primary care provider (17 percent). However, smaller percentages of these children are in before- and after-school programs (10 percent), family child care (5 percent), or with nannies or baby-sitters (4 percent) while their mother is working. Those 10- to 12-year-olds who are in these supervised primary child care arrangements also spend less time in them (11.1 hours) than younger children (13.1 hours).
Self-Care. In contrast, self-care is often the primary form of child care (24 percent) among 10- to 12-year-olds while their mothers work. Yet, even though a greater percentage of older children use self-care as the primary arrangement, the average number of hours they spend in self-care (6.2 hours) does not differ statistically from the younger children.
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, 40 percent of older school-age children are not in supervised child care arrangements examined here or self-care while their mothers work—the same proportion as is found among younger school-age children.
Any Hours in Supervised or Unsupervised Care
Like younger children, looking only at primary settings fails to capture the full use of different forms of child care among older school-age children. Consequently, examining the use of different forms of child care, regardless of whether they are used for the most hours or used for any hours while the parent is working, shows that:
Forty-three percent of older school-age children with employed mothers regularly spend at least some time in the supervised settings examined here, a share that is significantly lower than for younger children. Ten- to 12-year-olds in supervised care average less time in care (11.6 hours) than younger children (14.4 hours).
More than one-third (35 percent) of 10- to 12-year-olds regularly spend at least some time in self-care each week. This percentage increases significantly as age increases—23 percent of 10-year-olds are in self-care, compared with 44 percent of 12-year-olds (figure 1).
While older children are more likely to spend at least some hours in self-care than younger school-age children, 10- to 12-year-old children average the same amount of time in self-care as younger children. Among those 10- to 12-year-old children who are in any self-care, 55 percent care for themselves for one to four hours per week, and 15 percent care for themselves for 10 or more hours per week.
Child Care Patterns of Families with Different Characteristics
Factors such as family income, racial and ethnic differences, the availability of parental care, and traditional versus nontraditional work schedules can influence the types of care that families use for their children. Below we compare the child care patterns of school-age children from families with these different characteristics, focusing on the primary child care arrangements. In addition, because of the particular importance of self-care as an issue of public policy, we also examine the extent to which children are regularly placed in self-care for any amount of time each week.
Different Family Incomes
Research has shown that families with different incomes make different child care arrangements for their preschool children (Capizzano, Adams, and Sonenstein 2000). Therefore, it seems likely that patterns of child care for school-age children would also vary depending on family income. Low-income families may not be able to afford after-school programs for their children, requiring them to rely on less expensive or free forms of care, while families with greater financial resources may have more child care options. In addition, children from higher-income families are more likely to live in neighborhoods that parents would consider safe—a contextual factor that has been shown to increase the likelihood that children will be left to care for themselves (Smith and Casper 1999). It is important to note, however, that it is not possible to determine from these data if the differences are the product of the preferences or constraints of these two populations. This section examines the child care patterns of school-age children living in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level in contrast to those whose incomes are at or above that level.13
Younger School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. Across income groups there is little difference in the likelihood that younger school-age children will rely on any of the supervised nonparental arrangements analyzed here while their mothers are working. Overall, 52 percent of low-income and 57 percent of higher-income 6- to 9-year-old children are in the supervised settings we examine (table 2). Furthermore, there is relatively little difference in the specific type of supervised settings these children use, with most children in both income groups being cared for in before- and after-school programs or by relatives. The only exception to this pattern is that higher-income children are twice as likely as low-income children to have a nanny or baby-sitter as their primary child care arrangement (6 percent, compared with 3 percent). However, children from low-income families spend more time in their supervised primary child care arrangement than children from higher-income families—14.5 hours per week, as opposed to 12.3 hours per week.
|
| Table 2 Out-of-School Child Care for Children Ages 6 to 12 with Employed Mothers,a by Income and Age of Child (1997) |
Ages 6-9 |
| |
Income as a Percentage
of the Federal Poverty Level |
| |
Below 200% |
At or Above 200% |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
52 |
57 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
19 |
23 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
8 |
8 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
3** |
6 |
| Relative (%) |
23 |
20 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
14.5** |
12.3 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
4* |
6 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
7.1 |
6.5 |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
44* |
37 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
9 |
11 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
4.6 |
4.7 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
66 |
64 |
| 5-9 (%) |
15 |
22 |
| 10+ (%) |
19 |
13 |
Ages 10-12 |
| |
Income as a Percentage
of the Federal Poverty Level |
| |
Below 200% |
At or Above 200% |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
32 |
37 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
7* |
11 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
4 |
5 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
3 |
4 |
| Relative (%) |
17 |
17 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
14.2** |
9.9 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
19* |
27 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
6.2 |
6.2 |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
49** |
36 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
28** |
38 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
5.3 |
5.6 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
55 |
54 |
| 5-9 (%) |
30 |
30 |
| 10+ (%) |
14 |
16 |
Source: Urban Institute calculations from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families.
Notes: Percentages do not sum to 100 as a result of rounding. * Indicates that difference between low-income and higher-income children is significant at the .1 level. ** Indicates significance at the .05 level. Standard errors and sample sizes for each estimate are presented in appendix table 2B.
a. Interviews were conducted with the person in the household most knowledgeable about the child. While this can be any member of the household, the mother is the respondent for 76 percent of the children. For simplicity, the term "mother" is used here.
b. The primary child care arrangement is defined as the arrangement used for the most hours while the parent is working.
c. Any self-care is defined as regularly spending any amount of time alone (or with a sibling younger than age 13) regardless of whether or not it is used while the mother is working. |
Self-Care. There is a small but significant difference in the use of self-care as the primary form of child care while the mother works. While small proportions of both low- and higher-income 6- to 9-year-olds use this form of care as the primary nonparental child care arrangement, children from higher-income families are slightly more likely to do so (6 percent for higher-income and 4 percent for low-income). There is no significant difference in the amount of time that low- and higher-income children spend in self-care when it is their primary form of child care (7.1 hours, compared with 6.5 hours, respectively).
As noted earlier, the relatively small proportions of 6- to 9-year-olds using self-care as the primary form of child care provide only a partial picture of the extent to which self-care is used by working parents. Parents may regularly use self-care as a secondary form of child care while they work or they may use it when they are not working. Compared with the percentage of children spending time in self-care as a primary arrangement, greater proportions of low- and higher-income 6- to 9-year-old children regularly spend any time in self-care. Both income groups are still almost equally likely to spend any time in self-care (9 percent and 11 percent, respectively). Each income group spends about the same amount of time in any self-care (average 4.6 and 4.7 hours, respectively), with few differences in how these hours are distributed.
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, 44 percent of low-income 6- to 9-year-old children are in parent care or other care, compared with 37 percent of higher-income children.
Older School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. Low-income 10- to 12-year-olds appear to be slightly less likely to be in any of the supervised nonparental child care settings presented here as a primary arrangement than are higher-income children (32 percent, compared with 37 percent), but this difference is not statistically significant (table 2). Low-income children in this age group, however, are less likely to be in before- and after-school programs than children from higher-income families (7 percent, compared with 11 percent). There is little difference in their use of relative care, family child care, or care by a nanny or baby-sitter. As with the younger school-age children, 10- to 12-year-olds from low-income families spend longer hours in their supervised primary child care arrangement than children from higher-income families (14.2 hours, compared with 9.9 hours).
Self-Care. For both low- and higher-income families, self-care is used often as a primary child care arrangement among 10- to 12-year-old children. However, low-income children are significantly less likely to use self-care as the primary child care arrangement than higher-income children (19 percent, compared with 27 percent). Interestingly, among those relying on self-care as the primary child care arrangement, there is no difference in the length of time they care for themselves (on average, 6.2 hours per week) across the income groups.
Looking at the percentage of children in self-care for any amount of time regularly each week rather than as the primary form of care (figure 2) reveals a lower incidence of self-care among lower-income children—28 percent of low-income 10- to 12-year-olds regularly spend any time in self-care, compared with 38 percent of higher-income children. However, there is little difference in the amount of time that these children spend caring for themselves (5.3 hours versus 5.6 hours, respectively).
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, almost one-half (49 percent) of low-income children are in parent care/other care, compared with 36 percent of higher-income children.
Different Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds
Research shows that child care patterns for preschool children vary among different racial and ethnic groups, though it is not clear to what extent these differences stem from specific preferences or constraints (Casper 1997). This section presents school-age child care patterns for different racial and ethnic groups, exploring whether these variations exist in school-age child care as well. This analysis groups all persons of Hispanic origin into the Hispanic category, while non-Hispanics are grouped into three racial categories: white, black, and other. (Because of the small sample size of children in the "other" category, they are not analyzed here or included in table 3.)
|
| Table 3 Out-of-School Child Care for Children Ages 6 to 12 with Employed Mothers,a by Race/Ethnicity and Age of Child (1997) |
Ages 6-9 |
| |
White, Non-Hispanic |
Black, Non-Hispanic |
Hispanic, All Races |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
54A** |
66C** |
54 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
21 |
27C** |
16 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
8 |
10 |
11 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
6B** |
3 |
3 |
| Relative (%) |
19 |
25 |
25 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
12. |
14.5 |
13.9 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
5 |
5 |
4 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
7.1 |
— |
— |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
41A** |
29C** |
42 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
10 |
12 |
7 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
4.8 |
— |
— |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
63 |
— |
— |
| 5-9 (%) |
22 |
— |
— |
| 10+ (%) |
15 |
— |
— |
Ages 10-12 |
| |
White, Non-Hispanic |
Black, Non-Hispanic |
Hispanic, All Races |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
33A** |
51C** |
36 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
9B** |
17C** |
4 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
5 |
6 |
3 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
3A*B** |
1C** |
10 |
| Relative (%) |
16A** |
27 |
18 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
10.7 |
11.7 |
12.0 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
30A**B** |
11 |
15 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
6.1 |
— |
— |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
37B** |
37C* |
50 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
41A*B** |
19 |
22 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
5.5 |
— |
— |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
53 |
— |
— |
| 5-9 (%) |
33 |
— |
— |
| 10+ (%) |
15 |
— |
— |
Source: Urban Institute calculations from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families.
Notes: Percentages do not sum to 100 as a result of rounding. (A) Indicates a significant difference between white and black children; (B) indicates a significant difference between white and Hispanic children; (C) indicates a significant difference between black and Hispanic children. * Indicates that the differences are significant at the .1 significance level. ** Indicates that the difference is significant at the .05 level. Some estimates are not presented because they are based on sample sample sizes of less than 100 observations. Standard errors and sample sizes for the estimates are presented in appendix table 2C.
a. Interviews were conducted with the person in the household most knowledgeable about the child. While this can be any member of the household, the mother is the respondent for 76 percent of the children. For simplicity, the term "mother" is used here.
b. The primary child care arrangement is defined as the arrangement used for the most hours while the parent is working.
c. Any self-care is defined as regularly spending any amount of time alone (or with a sibling younger than age 13) regardless of whether or not it is used while the mother is working. |
Younger School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. The likelihood that 6- to 9-year-old children will be in any of the supervised nonparental settings examined here as a primary arrangement while their mothers are working varies across racial and ethnic groups (table 3). Black 6- to 9-year-old children are significantly more likely to be in supervised settings than are either whites or Hispanics (66 percent, compared with 54 percent each).
More black children (27 percent) than Hispanic children (16 percent) use before- and after-school programs while their mothers work.14 However, there is no statistically significant difference by race/ethnicity in the use of relative care, despite other findings that Hispanic families rely heavily on relative care for their younger children. NSAF data suggest that one-quarter of young Hispanic school-age children are cared for by relatives (25 percent), compared with a similar proportion of blacks (25 percent) and a slightly smaller proportion of whites (19 percent). The amount of time that 6- to 9-year-old children from each group spend in these supervised child care arrangements does not differ. Black children spend on average 14.5 hours per week in their supervised primary arrangements, Hispanic children spend 13.9 hours, and white children spend 12.5 hours.
Self-Care. Similarly, there appear to be few differences across racial and ethnic groups in the likelihood that young school-age children will be in self-care as a primary arrangement. Approximately 5 percent of white, black, and Hispanic children use self-care while their mothers work. White children, the only group large enough to calculate the mean hours in care, spend 7.1 hours per week in self-care.
As expected, looking at self-care only when it is the primary form of care understates the extent of its use. Higher proportions of each group use self-care for any amount of time each week. However, while the proportion of young school-age children spending any time in self-care appears to vary slightly by race (10 percent of whites, 12 percent of blacks, and 7 percent of Hispanics), these differences are not statistically significant.
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, white and Hispanic 6- to-9-year-olds are more likely to have parent care/other care than black children (41, 42, and 29 percent, respectively).
Older School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. Racial and ethnic differences in the use of the supervised nonparental primary child care arrangements analyzed here are more pronounced among 10- to 12-year-old children (table 3). For example, the gap between black children and white and Hispanic children is greater than among younger children. Specifically, more than half (51 percent) of all black 10- to 12-year-olds are primarily in a supervised arrangement while their mothers work, contrasted to 36 percent of Hispanic children and 33 percent of white children (figure 3).
There also continue to be differences in the types of care that these children use. For example, black 10- to 12-year-olds are the most likely to be in before- and after-school programs (17 percent) and are more likely to be in this form of care than Hispanics (4 percent). Blacks also have the highest percentage of children in relative care (27 percent), which is significantly higher than the percentage of white children in relative care (16 percent). Like younger school-age children, there is no real difference in the amount of time that children from the different racial and ethnic backgrounds who are in a supervised primary arrangement spend in that form of care (10.7 to 12.0 hours).
Self-Care. The largest difference among older white, black, and Hispanic children is the percentage of children using self-care as the primary form of care while parents work—a pattern not found across the groups of younger school-age children. Among the older age group, white children are twice as likely as Hispanic children, and almost three times as likely as black children, to use self-care as the primary form of care (30 percent of whites, compared with 15 percent of Hispanics and 11 percent of blacks). White children who are primarily in self-care spend 6.1 hours in self-care each week.15
In addition, when looking at the regular use of self-care for any amount of time, white 10- to 12-year-olds with employed mothers are significantly more likely to regularly spend any hours in self-care. Roughly twice the proportion of white children (41 percent) spend some hours in self-care each week, compared with black (19 percent) and Hispanic (22 percent) children. Among those white children spending any time in self-care, 53 percent spend less than 5 hours in self-care while 33 percent spend between 5 and 9 hours and 15 percent spend 10 or more hours.
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, the likelihood that 10- to 12-year-old children will be in parent care/other care while their mothers work differs from younger school-age children. Specifically, one-half of all Hispanic children are in this category, in contrast to only 37 percent of whites and blacks in this age group.
Different Amounts of Parental Time to Care for Their Children
Demographic trends over the last 25 years have redefined the traditional notions of the American family. In particular, greater labor force participation among women has raised the percentage of families with working mothers, and an increase in the divorce rate and out-of-wedlock births has increased the number of single-parent families (Hernandez 1995). The combination of these two trends has implications for the amount of time that working parents have available to care for their children. This section compares the child care patterns of families with different amounts of "parental availability." Children are grouped according to the number of parents present in the household and the employment status of each parent. The four parental availability categories listed in order from "least time available" to "most time available" are:
- Children with a single parent working full-time;
- Children in two-parent families where both parents work full-time;
- Children with a single parent working part-time; and
- Children in two-parent families where there is partial employment (either the spouse/partner of the mother does not work, or one or both of the parents work part-time).
One would expect to see higher use of child care and self-care among families with less parental time to care for children—families where the parent(s) work full-time—than in families where one or both parents work part-time.*
Younger School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. There is a clear relationship between the use of the supervised nonparental child care arrangements analyzed here and parental availability. In particular, the overall use of these supervised settings as primary child care arrangements for young school-age children clearly rises in inverse proportion to the amount of time families have available (table 4). For example, more than three-quarters (79 percent) of 6- to 9-year-olds with single mothers employed full-time are in one of these supervised nonparental child care settings, falling to 65 percent for two parents working full-time, 47 percent for a single parent employed part-time, and 31 percent for those living in a two-parent family where one or both parents are employed on a part-time basis. Similarly, the types of supervised care arrangements used by employed mothers for their young school-age children also clearly vary by parental availability. Six- to 9-year-old children in families where there is low parental availability—single parents or two parents working full-time—are the most reliant on before- and after-school programs (36 percent and 24 percent, respectively) and relatives (27 percent and 25 percent) (figure 4). Conversely, the proportion of young school-age children in these forms of care is smallest among those parents with the most time available; for example, only 9 percent of 6- to 9-year-old children in two-parent families with partial employment are in before- and after-school programs, while just 13 percent are cared for by relatives.
|
| Table 4 Out-of-School Child Care for Children Ages 6 to 12 with Employed Mothers,a by Parental Availability and Age of Child (1997) |
Ages 6-9 |
| |
Single Mother, Employed Full-Time |
Both Parents, Employed
Full-Time |
Single Mother, Employed
Part-Time |
Partial Employmentd |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
79A**B**C** |
65D**E** |
47F** |
31 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
36A**B**C** |
24E** |
21F* |
9 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
10C** |
10E** |
7 |
5 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
5 |
5D** |
2F** |
6 |
| Relative (%) |
27B*C** |
25D*E** |
17 |
13 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
16.3A**C** |
13.0E** |
13.5F* |
8.5 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
4B* |
7D** |
2F* |
5 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
— |
— |
— |
— |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
17A**B**C** |
28D**E** |
51F** |
64 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
8A**B* |
14D**E** |
4F* |
8 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
— |
4.4 |
— |
— |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
— |
69 |
— |
— |
| 5-9 (%) |
— |
14 |
— |
— |
| 10+ (%) |
— |
18 |
— |
— |
Ages 10-12 |
| |
Single, Employed Full-Time |
Both Employed, Full-Time |
Single, Employed Part-Time |
Partial Employmentd |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
49A*B**C** |
40D**E** |
27 |
22 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
18A**B**C** |
11D**E** |
4 |
4 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
5C* |
8D**E** |
2 |
2 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
4 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
| Relative (%) |
22C** |
19E** |
18 |
12 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
14.0A**C** |
10.6E* |
11.8F* |
8.1 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
26 |
27E* |
19 |
21 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
8.2A*C** |
5.9 |
— |
5.0 |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
25A*B**C** |
33D**E** |
54 |
57 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
38B* |
36 |
26 |
31 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
6.7 |
5.8 |
— |
4.3 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
40A**C* |
58 |
— |
59 |
| 5-9 (%) |
28 |
32 |
— |
33 |
| 10+ (%) |
32A**C** |
11 |
— |
9 |
Source: Urban Institute calculations from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families.
Notes: Percentages do not sum to 100 as a result of rounding. (A) Indicates a significant difference between single, employed full-time and both employed full-time; (B) indicates a significant difference between single, employed full-time and single, employed part-time; (C) indicates a significant difference between single, employed full-time and partial employment; (D) indicates a significant difference between both employed full-time and single, employed part-time; (E) indicates a significant difference between both employed full-time and partial employment; (F) indicates a significant difference between single, employed part-time and partial employment.
* Indicates that the differences are significant at the .1 significance level. ** Indicates that the difference is significant at the .05 level. Some estimates are not presented because they are based on sample sample sizes of less than 100 observations. Standard errors and sample sizes for the estimates are presented in appendix table 2D.
a. Interviews were conducted with the person in the household most knowledgeable about the child. While this can be any member of the household, the mother is the respondent for 76 percent of the children. For simplicity, the term "mother" is used here.
b. The primary child care arrangement is defined as the arrangement used for the most hours while the parent is working.
c. Any self-care is defined as regularly spending any amount of time alone (or with a sibling younger than age 13) regardless of whether or not it is used while the mother is working.
d. Partial employment describes families where either the spouse/partner of the mother does not work, or one or both of the parents work part-time. |
The amount of time spent in the supervised child care arrangement also varies by parental availability. Children across most of the categories spend on average 13 to 16 hours per week in their supervised primary child care arrangement, with children of single parents working full-time spending the most time. However, those young school-age children in families with the most time to care for their children (two-parent "partial employment" families) spend substantially less time in their supervised primary child care arrangement (8.5 hours).
Self-Care. There is no clear relationship between parental availability and the likelihood that a 6- to 9-year-old child will be in self-care as the primary child care arrangement. Young school-age children of single parents working full-time are no more likely than children of "partially employed" parents to have self-care as a primary arrangement (4 percent, compared with 5 percent).
Among children using self-care regularly for any amount of time each week, 6- to 9-year-olds with two parents working full-time are much more likely to be in any regular self-care (14 percent), compared with children in the other parental availability categories. Conversely, children with single parents working part-time are significantly less likely than other children to spend any regular time in self-care.
Parent Care/Other Care. Finally, it is not surprising that parental availability influences whether children are in the parent care/other care category. Children with single mothers working full-time and children from two-parent families where both parents work full-time are least likely to be in this category (17 percent and 28 percent, respectively). However, the proportion of children in this category rises to 51 percent for 6- to 9-year-olds with single mothers employed part-time and to 64 percent among those in two-parent families with partial employment.
Older School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. As with younger school-age children, there is a clear relationship between parental availability and the likelihood that 10- to 12-year-olds will be in one of the supervised nonparental child care settings analyzed here, though older school-age children are generally much less likely to be in such settings (table 4). Overall, the proportion of older children in supervised child care settings falls from 49 percent of children with a single mother employed full-time to 22 percent of children in a two-parent family with partial employment.
Again, as with younger children, the specific type of supervised child care that 10- to 12-year-olds use also appears to be related to parental availability. For example, 22 percent of older school-age children with single mothers employed full-time are being cared for by relatives, while 18 percent are in before- and after-school programs. These proportions fall to 12 percent and 4 percent, respectively, for children in two-parent families with partial employment (figure 5).
The hours that older school-age children spend in their supervised child care arrangement also appear to be related to parental availability. The children of single parents working full-time are in supervised care for an average of 14.0 hours a week, compared with only 8.1 hours among two-parent families with partial employment.
Self-Care. Slightly larger percentages of children from single- and two-parent families working full-time are in self-care as a primary arrangement compared with the other groups. However, only the difference between children with two parents working full-time and children with a single parent working part-time is statistically significant. Children of single parents who are in self-care are there for significantly longer amounts of time (8.2 hours), compared with children in the other categories (5.9 hours for children of two parents working full-time and 5.0 hours for children of parents in the partial employment category).
Ten- to 12-year-olds with single parents working full-time (38 percent) have the highest percentage in any self-care. However, this group is only significantly higher than the group of children with single mothers working part-time. Among children spending any time in self-care, children of single mothers working full-time spend the most time there. Specifically, almost a third (32 percent) of these children spend more than 10 hours a week in self-care; another 28 percent are in self-care 5 to 9 hours per week. As a consequence, 60 percent are in self-care for the equivalent of at least one hour per workday—significantly higher than other categories of parental availability.
Parent Care/Other Care. We also find a relationship between parental availability and the proportion of 10- to 12-year-olds in the parent care/other care category. The share of children in this category rises from 25 percent of those families with the least parental time available (single parents working full-time) to 57 percent of those with the most time (two parents with partial employment).
Different Work Schedules—Traditional versus Nontraditional
An interesting trend in recent years has been the increase in the number of parents working nontraditional work schedules—such as on evenings or weekends. Whether a parent works primarily during the day or mostly at night is likely to influence the types of care in which a child is placed and the amount of time that the child spends in care. For mothers who work "traditional" work schedules—defined here as working primarily between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.—the child’s time in school can serve as a child care arrangement for at least some, if not most, of the hours that she works. In addition, most before- and after-school programs are designed to accommodate the gap that exists between school hours and the traditional workday. For mothers who work "nontraditional" hours—predominantly after 6 p.m.—school does not function as a child care arrangement and formal arrangements are less readily available. However, mothers who work at night may be arranging work shifts with their partners in order to avoid placing their children in care. This section analyzes the patterns of care used by mothers who work nontraditional schedules, comparing them with those of mothers working traditional schedules.
Younger School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. Young, school-age children of mothers working traditional schedules are more likely to be in one of the supervised nonparental child care arrangements analyzed here as a primary arrangement while their mothers work than children whose mothers work nontraditional hours (57 percent, compared with 47 percent) (table 5). The groups also differ in the types of care that they use. Specifically, children whose mothers work traditional hours are much more likely to be in a before- or after-school program as their primary child care arrangement than children whose mothers work nontraditional hours (24 percent, compared with 8 percent). There are few differences in the extent to which they use the other types of care, such as relative care, family child care, and the care of a nanny or baby-sitter (figure 6).
Although those 6- to 9-year-olds whose mothers work nontraditional hours are less likely to be in supervised settings, those who are in supervised care are there much longer than children whose mothers work traditional hours (18.7 hours per week on average, compared with 12 hours). This result is most likely because the hours that the child spends in school do not coincide with the hours that the mother is working.
|
| Table 5 Out-of-School Child Care for Children Ages 6 to 12 with Employed Mothers,a by Work Schedule and Age of Child (1997) |
Ages 6-9 |
| |
Traditional Work Schedule
(6 a.m.-6 p.m.) |
Nontraditional Work Schedule
(after 6 p.m.) |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
57** |
47 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
24** |
8 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
8 |
8 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
5 |
7 |
| Relative (%) |
20 |
24 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
12.0** |
18.7 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
5 |
5 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
6.6 |
— |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
38** |
49 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
10 |
12 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
4.8 |
— |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
66 |
— |
| 5-9 (%) |
21 |
— |
| 10+ (%) |
13 |
— |
Ages 10-12 |
| |
Traditional Work Schedule
(6 a.m.-6 p.m.) |
Nontraditional Work Schedule
(after 6 p.m.) |
Primary Child Care Arrangementsb
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangements (%) |
35 |
36 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
10 |
10 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
5 |
4 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
3 |
5 |
| Relative (%) |
17 |
16 |
| Weekly Hours in Supervised Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
10.1** |
16.2 |
| Self-Care |
| Children Using Self-Care as a Primary Arrangement (%) |
26** |
17 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care Primary Arrangement (Mean) |
6.1 |
7.1 |
| Parent Care/Other Care (%) |
39* |
48 |
| Any Self-Carec |
| Children Using Any Regular Self-Care (%) |
36** |
27 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Mean) |
5.4 |
6.4 |
| Weekly Hours in Self-Care (Distribution of Children in Self-Care) |
| 1-4 (%) |
56 |
46 |
| 5-9 (%) |
29 |
39 |
| 10+ (%) |
15 |
15 |
Source: Urban Institute calculations from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families.
Notes: Percentages do not sum to 100 as a result of rounding.
* Indicates that the difference between children with mothers working traditional and nontraditional schedules is significant at the .1 level.
** Indicates significance at the .05 level. Some estimates are not presented because they are based on sample sizes of less than 100 observations. Standard errors and sample sizes for each estimate are presented in appendix table 2E.
a. Interviews were conducted with the person in the household most knowledgeable about the child. While this can be any member of the household, the mother is the respondent for 76 percent of the children. For simplicity, the term "mother" is used here.
b. The primary child care arrangement is defined as the arrangement used for the most hours while the parent is working.
c. Any self-care is defined as regularly spending any amount of time alone (or with a sibling younger than age 13) regardless of whether or not it is used while the mother is working. |
Self-Care. Young school-age children with mothers working traditional and nontraditional schedules are equally likely to have self-care as a primary child care arrangement (5 percent each). Children with mothers working traditional schedules spend an average of seven hours per week in self-care when it is the primary child care arrangement.16
Young school-age children whose mothers work traditional and nontraditional work schedules are also equally likely to regularly spend any time in self-care each week (10 percent and 12 percent, respectively). Most 6- to 9-year-old children with mothers working traditional schedules and who spend any time in self-care spend four hours or less caring for themselves.
Parent Care/Other Care: Almost half (49 percent) of all 6- to 9-year-olds whose mothers work nontraditional hours are not in either supervised child care or self-care. This is in contrast to 38 percent of children whose mothers work traditional hours.
Older School-Age Children
Supervised Child Care. Many of the differences in the use of supervised care for younger school-age children disappear for 10- to 12-year-olds whose mothers work traditional or nontraditional work schedules. Overall, slightly over one-third of each group use one of the supervised primary child care settings analyzed here while their mothers work (table 5). Furthermore, there is no difference in the type of care these children use for their primary setting. Both of these patterns are in strong contrast to the significant differences seen in these areas among younger school-age children (figure 7). However, 10- to 12-year-olds with parents working nontraditional schedules spend much more time in their supervised nonparental arrangements than children whose parents work traditional hours (16.2 hours, compared with 10.1 hours)—a pattern similar to that found for younger school-age children.
Self-Care. Reliance on self-care as a primary child care arrangement is much less common among 10- to 12-year-olds with employed mothers working nontraditional hours, compared with children of mothers who work traditional schedules (17 percent, compared with 26 percent). However, there is no significant difference in the amount of time they spend in self-care.
Children with mothers who work nontraditional hours are less likely to be in self-care for any hours each week, compared with children whose mothers work nontraditional hours (27 percent and 36 percent, respectively). However, among those in self-care, there is no significant difference in the amount of time spent in self-care.
Parent Care/Other Care. The percentage of older school-age children in the parent care/other care category is almost identical to 6- to 9-year-olds. Almost half (48 percent) of children whose mothers work nontraditional schedules are in this category, compared with 39 percent of children whose mothers work traditional schedules.
Child Care Patterns of School-Age Children in Selected States
Relatively little is known about school-age child care patterns in individual states or how they vary across states. It is likely that large variations exist across states, due in part to state differences in demographic and employment characteristics, the costs and supply of care, and child care policies. Therefore, it is important to investigate the child care patterns of school-age children at the state level. The child care arrangements of school-age children across 12 states are examined below.17
Younger School-Age Children across States
Supervised Child Care. States vary in the overall extent to which younger school-age children are in the supervised nonparental primary child care arrangements analyzed here—with as many as 61 percent of all 6- to 9-year-olds in New York in some supervised primary setting and as few as 49 percent in Washington (table 6).
States also vary in the extent to which children are in any particular type of supervised care. For example:
Before- and after-school care. While 21 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds are in these settings nationwide, the proportion using before- and after-school care across our 12 states is twice as high in Florida (31 percent) as in Mississippi, Washington, and Wisconsin (14, 14, and 15 percent, respectively) (figure 8).
Relatives. The proportion of young school-age children in relative care as their primary arrangement is 21 percent nationally but varies from 33 percent in Mississippi to less than half that level in Minnesota and Washington (13 and 15 percent, respectively).
Family child care and nannies/baby-sitters. The proportion of children ages 6 to 9 in family child care ranges from as high as 15 percent in Minnesota and New York to 5 percent in Mississippi. Similarly, the proportion of young school-age children being cared for by nannies or baby-sitters varies from 11 percent in New York to 2 percent in Mississippi and Texas.
Self-Care. As is true nationwide, self-care is used infrequently as a primary child care arrangement for 6- to 9-year-olds across states. While only 5 percent of this age group are in this form of care nationwide, the proportion across states varies from 8 percent in Texas (which is not, however, statistically different from the national average) to only 1 percent in New York and 2 percent in California.
While nationally one out of ten 6- to 9-year-olds spend any time in self-care each week, this percentage also varies widely across states (table 6). Of the states examined, Minnesota has the highest percentage of 6- to 9-year-old children spending any time in self-care (17 percent), about three times the number in Michigan, Alabama, California, and Mississippi (5 to 6 percent).
Parent Care/Other Care. There is relatively little variation across states in the percentage of children in the parent care/other care category. While 40 percent of all 6- to 9-year-olds with employed mothers are in this category, the proportions range from 45 percent in Massachusetts to 38 percent in California and New York.
|
| Table 6. Out-of-School Child Care for Children Ages 6 to 12 with Employed Mothers,a by Selected States and Age of Child (1997) |
| |
U.S.
(%) |
AL
(%) |
CA
(%) |
FL
(%) |
MA
(%) |
MI
(%) |
MN
(%) |
MS
(%) |
NJ
(%) |
NY
(%) |
TX
(%) |
WA
(%) |
WI
(%) |
6- to 9-Year-Olds
Supervised |
| Children in Supervised Primary Arrangementsb (%) |
55 |
56 |
60 |
59 |
51 |
53 |
55 |
55 |
58 |
61 |
54 |
49 |
52 |
| Type of Care |
| Before- and/or After-School Program (%) |
21 |
22 |
24 |
31 |
18 |
16 |
25 |
14 |
22 |
17 |
21 |
14 |
15 |
| Family Child Care (%) |
8 |
9 |
7 |
7 |
6 |
9 |
15 |
5 |
10 |
15 |
9 |
11 |
13 |
| Nanny/Baby-sitter (%) |
5 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
9 |
4 |
3 |
|
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