The day care neighbor service: An interventive experiment

Abstract

In the United States, more than one million children of working mothers are cared for in the homes of nonrelatives. An informal social system exists through which mothers and day care givers find each other, make, maintain, and dissolve their private arrangements, almost entirely without the intervention of any social agency. This paper describes the development of a new kind of day care service using consultation methods for preventive intervention at the neighborhood level. This "Day Care Neighbor Service" provides consultation to a network of women who perform an informal neighboring role in relation to family day care arrangements. The primary, secondary, and tertiary preventive potentials of this approach are discussed.