Beyond an “Either–Or” approach to home- and center-based child care: Comparing children and families who combine care types with those who use just one

Abstract

Most research focuses on preschoolers’ primary non-parental child care arrangement despite evidence that multiple arrangements are relatively common. Using the nationally-representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we compare characteristics and outcomes of families whose 4-year olds attend both home- and center-based child care with those who attend either home- or center-based care exclusively or receive no non-parental care at all. We find that about one fifth of 4-year olds attend both home- and center-based child care. Mothers’ priorities for care (getting their child ready for school, matching their families’ cultural background) and perceptions of good local care options predict their combining home- and center-based care. Preschoolers score higher on reading and math assessments, on average, when they attend centers, alone or in combination with home-based child care, than when they are cared for only in homes, either by their parents or by others. Preschoolers’ average socioemotional outcomes generally do not differ between families who do and who do not combine care types. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Rural families’ use of multiple child care arrangements from 6 to 58 months and children’s kindergarten behavioral and academic outcomes

“…However, these proposed developmental benefits are potentially more prevalent for higher-income families, who may have a greater ability to intentionally arrange child care settings or provide children with stable, long-term concurrent arrangements (Pilarz & Hill, 2014), or for urban and suburban families, who may have a larger number of available child care options. For example, families may choose a range of concurrent child care options to capitalize on perceived benefits, such as positive social skills from a home-based setting and higher academic skills from a center-based setting (Bratsch, 2011; Gordon et al, 2013; Howes, 2010; Morrissey, 2009). …”

“…Children may come in contact with a variety of peers who serve as source of direct or vicariously-acquired knowledge. Recent studies found that using particular combinations of multiple arrangements in the year prior to kindergarten, such as prekindergarten (pre-K) in combination with other center-based care, was positively associated with pre-K or kindergarten language and literacy outcomes (Forry et al, 2013; Gordon et al, 2013). Therefore, theoretically speaking, a more complex and supportive mesosystem could present greater developmental opportunities to the developing child.…”

“…Multiple arrangements have been shown to provide benefits to children if certain types of care are combined, such as center-based care for enhanced school readiness and home-based care for reduced behavioral problems (Gordon et al, 2013). Gordon and colleagues (2013) used ECLS-B data to show that four-year-olds who scored highest on a reading composite were those who were enrolled in two or more concurrent center-based child care arrangements. Children who were simultaneously enrolled in home-based and center-based child care arrangements scored higher on social competence than children who were enrolled in multiple center-based arrangements.…”

“…Children who were simultaneously enrolled in home-based and center-based child care arrangements scored higher on social competence than children who were enrolled in multiple center-based arrangements. No type patterns of multiple arrangements predicted to problem behaviors (Gordon et al, 2013). Rather than creating a variable capturing each type of care for every arrangement, which would create numerous patterns of care from 6–58 months, this study explored whether children’s participation in multiple arrangements prior to kindergarten was moderated by the proportion of their formal arrangements across all arrangements.…”

“…Unique to this study, child care quantity and type (although not quality) were available for all arrangements and were included in analyses. Recent studies have explored how multiple arrangement usage at age four was linked to kindergarten outcomes (Forry, Davis, & Welti, 2013; Gordon, Colaner, Usdansky, & Melgar, 2013). In this study, we sought to broaden the literature by examining the links between children’s average number of non-parental child care arrangements between 6–58 months (termed throughout the paper as multiple arrangements ) and children’s behavioral and academic skills at kindergarten.…”