Child Care Supply and Demand: Parental Choice at the Area and Family Levels
Ramsburg, Dawn Marie
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/87819
Description
Title
Child Care Supply and Demand: Parental Choice at the Area and Family Levels
Author(s)
Ramsburg, Dawn Marie
Issue Date
1999
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Pleck,Joseph H.
Department of Study
Human Resources and Family Studies
Discipline
Human Resources and Family Studies
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, Individual and Family Studies
Language
eng
Abstract
"To better understand the child care options available to families in East Central Illinois, this study assessed a new measure of parental choice of child care using---supply-demand congruence (SDC)---which compared the number of child care slots requested by parents with the number of vacant slots reported by child care providers. This study also examined the relationship of census tract (""area"") level characteristics to area level SDC (SDC-A) and family level SDC (SDC-F). Finally, the relationship of family level characteristics to SDC-F was examined. These analyses were conducted using data collected by the local child care resource and referral agency on 805 child care providers and 700 parents seeking child care in six counties. In one-third of the 111 census tracts in this sample, parents did not have choice of child care. In addition, in more than half of the census tracts studied, parents seeking center care, family child care, weekend care, and evening care did not have choice of child care. Finally, results revealed that two area level characteristics were significantly related to SDC at the area and family levels: the proportion of rural persons in the census tract and the proportion of females in the labor force in the census tract. Families living in census tracts with a high proportion of rural persons had significantly less overall choice of child care and less choice of center care, toddler care, school-age care, full week care, and full day care. Families living in census tracts where the proportion of females in the labor force was low had significantly less choice of family child care, infant care, toddler care, school-age care, weekend care, and evening care. The results of this study suggest that it is important for future research to study parental choice at the family level and for future research to study the demand for infant care separately from the demand for toddler care."
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