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IV
Future Directions
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9
Recommendations for
Data Collection and Research
r
The panel has reviewed a broad array of data sets, academic research
studies, and program evaluations for their contribution to understanding
issues related to child care policy. In previous chapters we have summarized
what is known about the consequences of supplemental care for children's
health and development, described existing child care services and related
public policies and programs, and analyzed the adequacy of existing services,
policies, and programs to meet current and increasing needs for out-of-
home child care and the effects of alternative proposals to meet those
needs. Although researchers have made significant advances in knowledge
about child care in recent years, we have repeatedly noted that many
questions remain unanswered, and those questions suggest priorities for
future data collection and research. Many of the panel's recommendations
reiterate and expand on the work of previous panels and study groups
of the Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy (see
Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy, 1981; Hayes,
1987; Hayes and Kamerman, 1983; and Kamerman and Hayes, 1982~.
Essential to framing an agenda for research is an underlying concept
of the possible applications of increased knowledge. What do concerned
policy makers, program administrators, advocates, employers, and parents
need to know? How would particular information make a difference for
public or private efforts to develop responses to parents' growing needs
for out-of-home child care? The relationship between empirical study,
scientific theory, and policy and program development is interactive and
continuously evolving. Advances in one domain inevitably influence new
initiatives in others. Implicit in the research questions that have emerged
in previous chapters is the need to link data collection, analyses of the
developmental consequences of different forms of child care, and studies of
269
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program costs and effects to underlying theoretical constructs, for example,
theories of child development, theories of social structure and adaptation,
and theories of human ecology.
What is the meaning of mothers' employment and child care in the
context of parents' and children's psychosocial, cognitive, and physical de-
velopment? How do mothers' employment and child care relate to race,
family structure, and socioeconomic status? What do they mean in different
cultural communities and neighborhood environments? And what do they
mean in terms of national productivity, public welfare, and public costs?
In light of such questions, data needs can be specified, measures can be
derived, hypotheses concerning the relationships among relevant variables
can be tested, and programmatic approaches can be developed with some
logical connection between often distinct and unrelated activities. Within
this framework, the rest of this chapter presents the panel's recommenda-
tions for data collection, research on child care and child development, and
policy and program analysis.
DATA COLLECTION
The panel recommends that data systems that monitor par-
ents' employment and use of child care, as well as indicators of
children's health and well-being, be maintained and strengthened.
Such data are essential for understanding trends and correlates
of employment, their effects on child and family well-being, the
demand for and supply of child care services, and the availability
and affordability of child care as a basis for policy and program
development.
Data concerning levels and variations in parents' employment, income,
family structure, and the availability, use, and costs of child care services
of different types were the basis for much of the panel's deliberations. In
addition, the panel relied on data concerning the health and well-being
of children and their adaptations to the social and economic changes in
U.S. society over the past decade and a half. Such data will continue to
be essential for future research and analysis of child care issues. Relevant
information is available from several sources, including large-scale surveys,
federal and state administrative reporting systems, and service providers.
Each of these sources has particular strengths and weaknesses, and individ-
ual data sets vary in their underlying purposes and special emphases as well
as their specific characteristics (e.g., definitions, sampling, data collection
intervals). Thus, the panel concludes that a multidimensional strategy for
data collection is essential.
Several general issues are relevant to the collection of information in
large-scale data sets that affect their usefulness in studies of child care.
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271
First, in many cases the definitions of key concepts (such as types of child
care programs or arrangements) are not uniform across data sets, making
it difficult for researchers studying particular phenomena or relationships
to use or compare information from different sources. Within individual
data sets, standardized information is often unavailable in sufficient detail
to support the desired analyses: for example, data on the age of children in
licensed child care facilities; data on children's gender, race, and ethnicity;
or data on parent's work patterns and sources of income.
Second, there are no national data on the supply of child care and early
childhood education programs. Information concerning the availability of
different types of child care programs and arrangements and their regulation
and financing is not available from any central source. And although states
collect some of these data, they are not centrally available even at the
state level: for example, although state licensing agencies collect data on
the number of licensed child care facilities and their capacities, they do
not keep information on early childhood programs operated by schools or
Head Start.
Third, data necessary to match supply of and demand for child care
of different types, within a relevant range of costs and within and across
relevant geographic units, is currently unavailable. Efforts to compare the
demand for services to the available supply are stymied by the unavailability
and inconsistency of data at the local, county, state, or national level.
Finally, some important information on employment, attitudes about
work and child care, and indicators of child health and well-being are not
collected on a routine basis. Consequently, researchers and policy analysts
cannot track changes over time that may have significant implications for
the development and implementation of policies and programs.
Our discussion of priorities for data collection is organized according
to the types of relevant data sources: large-scale surveys, national and state
reporting systems, and special surveys.
Large-Scale Sunveys
The major large-scale surveys that provide cross-sectional information
on parental employment and child care include general population surveys,
surveys of income and program participation, and youth surveys, many
of which have had long-standing federal support. The panel endorses the
protection and maintenance of these data sets and highlights several specific
ways in which their usefulness in studies of parental employment and child
care could be enhanced.
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General Population Surveys
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
General population surveys contain a broad array of descriptive infor-
mation on characteristics of a population. Because they provide lengthy
time series, they permit analyses of population trends, such as employment,
over time. Because of their very large sample sizes, they support analyses
of small population subgroups that are difficult to study using other data
sources. Two of the most relevant U.S. general population surveys for
the study of child care issues are the decennial census and the Current
Population Survey (CPS).
The decennial census provides the largest sample and most complete
information on general characteristics of the U.S. population of any avail-
able data source. In addition to identifying patterns of change in household
and family composition, racial and ethnic composition, age composition,
geographic distribution, and employment and personal income, it is invalu-
able for tracing trends and making estimates at the state and local levels.
It is especially useful for analyses of small geographic areas, such as towns
and neighborhoods, within larger metropolitan areas. Data on employment
status, family structure, marital status, and fertility among small popula-
tions, such as small ethnic groups and recent immigrants, allow researchers
to examine the trends and patterns of diverse population subgroups. More-
over, because of its broad coverage of the population, decennial censuses
frequently provide the basis for sampling designs for other data collection
efforts.
Unfortunately, however, census data are not detailed in many areas of
interest to researchers studying child care. For example, they do not contain
information about the type of child care arrangement that a family uses, the
costs of care, or the hours care is provided. Nor do they contain separate
information on the incomes of husbands and wives when both parents are
earners. Although there is a great detail of resistance to further expansion
of the census, these data would be extremely useful to child care researchers
and policy analysts.
The CPS is the source of monthly estimates of employment and unem-
ployment, including extensive detail on population characteristics. Through
the regular addition of supplemental questions, the survey also provides
both annual and one-time information on a broad spectrum of subjects,
such as family and personal income, poverty, receipt of noncash transfers,
annual work experience, school enrollment, and migration. Among the
many supplements that have been included periodically on the CPS are
questions concerning child care use and attitudes about work and child
care. Information about these issues is related to age of child, family struc-
ture,--and household income. However, these data only cover the child care
arrangements for the youngest child under age 6 in a household. Therefore,
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273
the data provide a limited view of parents' use of multiple arrangements and
especially the packaging of arrangements when their are several children
in the family of different ages with different child care needs. In addition,
information concerning school enrollment, employment, and child care
patterns among very young parents who are not living on their own are
not reported separately from those of the head of household. Therefore,
it is difficult to determine the need for and the use of child care by this
population subgroup. Such data would greatly facilitate analyses of public
income transfers and child support to teenage mothers as well as their
patterns of labor force participation and their use of child care outside the
home.
Survey of Income and Program Participation
The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is a major
source of information on the demographic and economic circumstances
of U.S. individuals and families. It covers a stratified sample of the U.S.
civilian noninstitutionalized population. It is a particularly useful tool for
understanding the effects of government transfer and service programs.
SIPP gathers detailed data on earned, unearned, and asset income, and
it measures monthly variations in contributing factors such as household
structure, the determinants of program eligibility, and actual program par-
ticipation. It is a continuous survey in which overlapping panels are added
and existing panels are rotated out periodically. In addition to its fixed
questions, covered in "topical modules," SIPP also contains variable "topi-
cal modules," one of which in 1984-1985 covered child care arrangements.
These data have been extremely useful in examining parents' use of al-
ternative child care arrangements as they relate to income and program
participation, as well as other demographic factors. This special topical
module should be continued in order to allow researchers, policy makers,
and program managers to track the dynamics of social change and the
effectiveness of public policies and programs designed to address the child
care needs of working parents.
National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort
The National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort (NLSY) provides
data on social, educational, occupational, and other aspects of the lives of
adolescents and young adults. Because the NLSY collects detailed data
on the youth experiences of males and females, it permits comparisons of
patterns of family formation and parenting in conjunction with education
and labor market experiences. A recent supplement to the NLSY, the
Mother-Child Assessment, includes detailed information on the health and
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development of the children of young mothers in the NLSY. These home
assessments of children's social, emotional, and cognitive development, as
well as information on child care arrangements and other parenting supports
and services, will greatly facilitate researchers' ability to link specific child
development outcomes to those factors for a nationally representative
sample of the U.S. population. We applaud plans to replicate the first
wave of the Mother-Child Assessment, which will provide researchers and
policy analysts with time patterns of family structure, income, parental
employment, and child care arrangements as they relate to children's health
and behavior.
National and State Reporting Systems
As we have noted, there are no national data sources on the overall
supply of and demand for child care. The demand for services is gener-
ally inferred from national survey data. Data on supply are provided by
state departments or agencies responsible for the regulation of child care
programs and by child care resource and referral agencies. They are also
available at the federal level for specific programs such as Head Start and
the Child Care Food Program.
State regulatory agencies usually collect data on the programs they
regulate, including licensed child care centers and family day care homes.
They do not, however, collect data on unregulated facilities, which means
that their estimates of the supply of child care are certainly less than the
actual supply. For example, in many states, programs that operate only part
day, those that are administered by the schools or as a part of the Head
Start program, and those that are operated under the auspices of religious
organizations are exempt from regulation and therefore not included in
states' estimates. In addition, unlicensed family day care homes are not
included in state reports of the supply of care.
State regulatory agencies usually can provide detailed information on
regulatory requirements and enforcement and on the licensed capacity-
distinct from the actual number of children being served of centers and
family day care homes. However, they usually do not collect information on
the population served or on program characteristics, such as the profit status
of the program or facility, or on financing or program fees. Therefore, it
is impossible to determine the extent to which current licensed programs
serve children of different ages, from families with different characteristics,
and those with special needs. Moreover, it is difficult to trace the flow of
public funding from the federal government, from states, and from local
revenues to particular child care programs.
Local resource and referral agencies do collect more complete infor-
mation on child care programs than do state agencies, including information
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on program characteristics (e.g., profit status, hours of operation, caretaker
qualifications) and on the population served. Many resource and referral
agencies also collect information on unlicensed and unregulated facilities
in jurisdictions in which certain types of facilities and programs are exempt
from state regulation or licensing. Because they attempt to match con-
sumers and providers of care, they generally also have data on the demand
for particular types of care. However, because resource and referral agen-
cies may or may not be located in any community, their coverage is uneven.
The information they collect may provide a relatively complete picture of
the supply and demand in a particular community, but the data from all
resource and referral agencies do not by any means add up to a complete
national picture.
In addition to presenting an incomplete picture of the available pro-
grams and the children and families they serve, these three data sources-
national and state reports and resource and referral agencies suffer from
noncomparability. For example, there is no common definition across states
of what constitutes a child care center, a family day care home, or a group
home. In addition, age categories of children specified in state regulations
also vary: infants may be defined in one state as newborn to 12 months of
age whereas in another they are children up to 22 months. In the absence
of common terminology and definitions, it is difficult to accurately estimate
the demand for and supply of licensed care (let alone unlicensed care) or
to assess the factors that affect supply.
At the national level, uniform information from each Head Start
grantee is reported to the Administration for Children, Youth, and Fami-
lies (ACYF), which compiles it in a computerized data base that is updated
annually. These data include a wide range of information on program
characteristics and costs, as well as the characteristics of children who are
enrolled. The data permit program comparisons by type of sponsoring
agency and geographic region, as well as projections of costs and enroll-
ments. Similarly, information collected by the local sponsoring agencies
for the Child Care Food Program is reported to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, which compiles it in a computerized data base. Information
from the food program is valuable because it presents a partial picture of
family day care in addition to center care. Both Head Start and the Child
Care Food Program data bases are extremely useful for program planning
and evaluation purposes. Unfortunately, they are not matched with other
comparable data sets that would facilitate analyses across programs and
types of providers of regulated and unregulated care.
The panel concludes that there is a critical need for better and more
systematic information on the supply of child care and early childhood
education programs and on the characteristics of the children and families
that are served by these programs. These data should include information
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On financing, costs of operation, and fee scales. They should be collected
at the state level and reported and compiled at the federal level.
Special Surveys
In addition to data on the supply of child care and early childhood
education programs that should be collected regularly at the state level and
compiled at the national level, there is an urgent need for special surveys
to provide current information on the demand for and supply of child
care and the experiences of children in child care. Such data are needed
as a basis for decisions by policy makers and program planners who are
responsible for responding to changing conditions and needs. Information
is also needed on families' child care arrangements, including preschool
and before- and after-school programs; how child care affects work patterns
and household responsibilities; and how parents make their choices of care
for their children. Data on the demand for child care should be matched
with information on the supply of programs and arrangements. Detailed
information is needed about the national supply of child care options and
how they are distributed among families in different social, economic, and
cultural circumstances and among different regions of the country and
community settings.
The panel applauds a joint initiative by the ACYF within the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services and the National Association
for the Education of Young Children to undertake the National Child Care
Survey. This survey of a nationally representative sample of 5,400 parents
with children under the age of 13 will be conducted in early 1990. It will
be complemented by a Profile of Child Care Settings Study, sponsored
by the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department
of Education, that will survey directors of child care centers, preschools,
and licensed family day care providers. Although unlicensed providers will
not be included, these two surveys, taken together, will provide the most
comprehensive picture of child care supply and demand yet available.
RESEARCH ON CHILD CARE AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
The panel recommends the continued support of a broad-
based research program on the relationship between child care
and child development to enhance understanding of the conse-
quences of children's experience in out-of-home care for their
social and cognitive development as well as for their physical
health and safety. The results of such studies will have continu-
ing value in the development of policies and programs related to
children and families.
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Over the past decade and a half, research has added significantly to the
knowledge of trends, correlates, and consequences of children's experience
in supplemental child care programs and arrangements. These research
findings have provided an essential basis for the panel's work. Numerous
studies have examined the effects of child care on children's growth and
development. As child care research has become more theoretically and
methodologically sophisticated, researchers have refined their questions
and designs to explore the specific features and characteristics of child care
programs and settings that affect psychosocial, physical, and cognitive de-
velopment and the practices that can safeguard children's health and safety
and promote positive outcomes. Despite advances in knowledge about child
care and child development, many questions remain unanswered. In some
cases, gaps reflect issues that have not been adequately studied because of
methodological problems; in other cases, new issues have emerged from
the findings to date.
In Chapters 3 through 5, we highlighted a variety of salient research
issues and questions. They are presented here under five general headings:
dimensions of child care quality; the relationship between child care quality
and family characteristics; participation in child care during the first year
of life; family day care, care by relatives, and use of multiple forms of care;
and health in child care settings. Those chapters also pointed to a need for
studies using new research strategies and focusing on emerging questions;
these are summarized in the final part of this section.
Dimensions of Child Care Quality
As we discussed in Chapter 4, widespread reliance on global or sum-
ma~y measures of quality in child care research is not simply a function of
convenience or simplicity. Rather, it reflects the fact that the individual
components of quality have often been found to be intercorrelated. Sev-
eral researchers have observed that "separation of . . . various dimensions
of care quality may be difficult, if not impossible, as they seem to occur
naturally in clusters" (Anderson et al., 1981:60) and that "good things" in
child care seem to go together (McCartney et al., 1985~.
Although research has documented the interrelatedness of structural
features of child care that constitute quality, additional work is needed to
clarify the implications of those links for child outcomes. If dimensions
of quality tend to cluster, then policies or programs may well need to be
designed around clusters of features as well as individual features. Such
studies will need to consider the assumption that improvements in one
quality feature may have implications for others. 1b give just one example,
it may well be that improving staff/child ratios has a meaningful effect on
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children only if caregivers are well trained or only if groups are of limited
size.
On the basis of our review of the existing literature, the panel concludes
that studies of the interrelatedness of quality dimensions should include
attention to several issues: (1) What is the nature of the correlation
among quality variables? Do consistent clusters of variables emerge across
studies of different types of child care programs and settings? (2) Does
manipulation of one variable (or cluster of variables) have ramifications
for others? (3) Does the relatedness of the quality dimensions depend
on a program's level of funding or on the philosophy of the program
director? For example, do more generously funded centers show higher
quality across dimensions? Or does a director with more training or a
particular philosophy struggle to maintain quality across dimensions?
Understanding of the dimensions of quality and their implications for
development would be improved by the use of research designs involving
random assignment or manipulation of quality dimensions. At present,
there appear to be two virtually segregated approaches to the study of
quality: intervention studies in high-risk populations, which rely heavily on
random assignment and manipulation of program features, and natural-
istic studies of community-based child care, which are vulnerable on the
grounds that they do not isolate characteristics of the children who are
served, the characteristics of the programs, or quality variables. A decade
after the publication of the National Day Care Study, which set forth the
methodological and conceptual basis for using randomization and manipu-
lation in studies of quality dimensions in community-based child care, it is
surprising that subsequent research on quality has not complemented the
body of naturalistic studies with more experimental ones. Future research
should examine the implications of (1) initiating change in particular qual-
ity features (e.g., providing training for caregivers, improving the staffIchild
ratios, disrupting or permitting continuity of peer groups) in a random
subset of classrooms; and (2) randomly assigning children to child care
settings that vary on key quality dimensions (or clusters). The absence of
such approaches is particularly glaring in the study of caregiver training,
when it is clearly possible that self-selection factors may influence levels of
training and education.
The panel's review suggests that understanding of child care quality
needs to be expanded to include dimensions that have not yet received
a great deal of attention by researchers and to include consideration of
acceptable and unacceptable ranges on the traditional quality variables.
Features of quality that may well be linked to development but that have not
been adequately studied include size of center (as opposed to size of group);
affirmation of children's racial, ethnic, or cultural group identity; parental
involvement; stability of the peer group; and, for family day care, the age
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mix within groups. There is a need for further study of child care curricula,
of both the content and the process of learning. The guidelines for group
sizes and staff/child ratios at different child ages proposed in professional
standards should form the basis of research focusing on ranges on these
variables and the extent to which they are associated with developmental
outcomes.
Our review of the studies on quality also pointed to a lack of research
assessing magnitude of effects: that is, what is the magnitude of improve-
ment on child outcomes for measured improvements in quality? Such data
would be extremely important in evaluating the benefits to children of
selected quality improvements. Finally, our review points to the need for
further study of the longer term implications for children's development of
participation in child care of high versus low quality, of quality dimensions
that may be uniquely important in the care of children with disabilities, and
of variation in the quality of care according to auspice of care.
Links Between the Quality of Child Care and Family Characteristics
In Chapter 4 we summarized the growing body of evidence that the
quality of child care and family characteristics are linked, and we noted the
"double jeopardy" of children from stressed families being placed in poor-
quality child care. Future studies should attempt to clarify the nature of the
association between the quality of child care and family characteristics. As
a first step, researchers need to ask whether existing studies have captured
the full range of family variables that may be related to child care quality.
In addition to socioeconomic variables, it now appears that family stress
and social support are important. Other variables, such as marital discord,
marital status, job characteristics of one or both parents, motivation for
parenting, and the quality of parent-child interactions, also merit attention.
Future studies should examine the process by which parents in different
circumstances choose child care. Do more stressed families allocate less
time to search for child care? Are they less informed about alternative
arrangements, about the significance of choosing high-quality care, or about
what constitutes high quality? Are they equally knowledgeable but less able
to persevere (given such factors as long waiting lists) in obtaining higher
quality care? Or are they simply less able to afford care of higher quality?
In this regard, future studies should explore the everyday decision-
making process regarding child care. How do parents weigh various di-
mensions of quality in judging and choosing child care settings for their
children? What are the relevant folk beliefs or cultural norms that influ-
ence their decisions? For example, how important is it to parents that their
children are cared for by kin or others from their own community or social
group rather than by strangers? How important is it to them that child care
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includes moral training, that gender differences are managed in a particular
way, or that a particular type of discipline is used? Indeed, parents may
want quality arrangements for their children, but their concept of quality
may be shaped more by culturally determined fold views of what is impor-
tant for child development than by scientific research. Cultural beliefs and
norms may or may not be related to race and ethnicity; therefore, they need
to be studied and understood separately from racial and ethnic differences
in child care. In the future, decisions concerning the organization of child
care programs and the mix of public child care policies should be much
more explicitly linked to the results of research on what parents prefer and
what they are really choosing in child care.
The links between family characteristics and child care quality may
provide an exemplar of what we have referred to as transactional processes
in development: the mutual influence of the child (and family) on the
child care environment and of the child care environment on the child (and
family). A longitudinal study of this association could explore patterns of
mutual influence over time. For example, while the level of family stress
may influence choice of child care quality, the choice of child care may
also subsequently influence stress within the family and affect the child's
development. As noted in Chapter 3, studies are needed not only of the
direct effects of child care on children, but also of the indirect effects on
children of the influences of child care on parents.
Consistent with our suggestion concerning studies of the relatedness
of dimensions of quality, knowledge of the family-quality association would
be improved by studies that systematically alter quality variables in a ran-
domly selected set of families that are similar on social, economic, and
psychological factors.
Participation in Child Care During the First Year of Life
As discussed in Chapter 3, children who participate in child care for
more than 20 hours a week during the first year of life show higher rates
of behaviors that are categorized on a frequently used laboratory measure
as "anxious avoidant" in their attachment to their mothers (see Chapter
3 for definition and discussion). Although there is agreement on this
finding, its bases and its implications are still subjects of heated debate.
This debate will only be resolved through rigorous examination of several
sets of questions. First, are differences in security of attachment rooted in
ongoing features of the mother-child relationship rather than in the timing
and amount of exposure to child care? Are there relevant self-selection
factors, that is, are mothers who resume employment (early and more
than part-time) different from those who do not? Are there differences
in their responsiveness to their infants that both antedate choice of care
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and underlie later differences in security of attachment or other indices of
development?
Second, what are the implications for the development of infant-mother
attachment (as well as for mothers' commitment to their infants) of child
care experiences in the first year of life of families with employed mothers?
For example, do variations in mothers' subjective sense of stress, of over-
load, or of role conflict influence the emergence of mutual attachment or
the way in which the child's attachment influences other relationships and
behavior?
Can anxious-avoidant attachment be modified? Would such factors
as a daily visit to the child care setting (perhaps during lunch time) or
counseling parents on structuring evening reunion time to maximize parent-
infant interaction time affect the incidence of anxious-avoidant attachment
in infants?
How does the assessment of security of attachment relate to other
indices of socioemotional development and well-being? Is avoidant at-
tachment in infants indeed associated with less optimal development both
contemporaneously and over time? Or is it a reflection of adaptive be-
havior? Future research needs to move beyond this single measure of
emotional functioning and question whether it predicts subsequent devel-
opment equally well in children with markedly different early experiences.
It would be particularly useful to include recognized clinical measures that
help distinguish between variations in child functioning within the normal
range and disturbed functioning (e.g., assertive versus hostile behavior).
Studies need to question and examine the developmental implications of
higher rates of anxious-avoidant attachment in infants in child care rather
than assume they are negative.
1b what extent do findings of anxious-avoidant attachment in infants
with a history of full-time child care attendance in the first year reflect the
use of poor-quality infant day care rather than the use of infant day care
per se? Throughout the earlier chapters of this report, we have questioned
whether infant care is of adequate quality given the developmental needs
of these very young children and the cost of providing that care. Is there
a difference in security of attachment to mothers among infants who have
experienced high-quality infant care?
In short, scholars of child development agree on the observed behavior,
but they disagree about what it means and whether it necessarily has
negative implications for children's future development. Resolving this
disagreement should be a high priority for further research because it
has significant implications for the role of public policies in establishing
standards for the quality of infant care and in the debate about parental
leave.
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Family Day Care, Care by Relatives, and
Use of Multiple Forms of Care
Most research on the effects of child care has studied children in center
care. Yet most of the children in out-of-home care are in family day care.
The disproportionate research focus on center care undoubtedly reflects
the greater difficulty in finding and gaining research access to family day
care homes, particularly those that are unlicensed and unregulated. As a
result, less is known about the development of children in this type of child
care setting and about the specific features of family day care that risk or
support children's development.
Future child care research needs to examine systematically the experi-
ences of children in family day care (especially unlicensed family day care).
Studies should go beyond the variables included in studies of center care
to examine features unique to family day care. For example, do older and
younger children form stable friendships in family day care groups? Do
children of certain ages experience problems in mixed-age groups, as some
studies suggest? Is family day care associated with greater concordance of
values and cultural practices from home to care setting than is the case with
center care? If so, what are the implications for children's development?
We note that there are few curricula or other materials to guide
family day care providers. Such materials should be developed, tested,
and evaluated. Similarly, study is needed of the effective ways to provide
training and technical assistance to family day care providers.
Because of the primary research focus on center care, there is also little
knowledge about care by relatives. Although a substantial proportion of
infants, toddlers, and preschoolers whose mothers are employed are cared
for by relatives (including fathers), almost no research in the United States
has included examination of the nature or effects of such care. Research on
the effects of child care needs to include comparisons of care by relatives
(including care by parents in split-shift arrangements) with other forms
of care and with care by at-home mothers. Such studies could inform
the continuing debate about the appropriateness and desirability of public
policies that encourage or discourage care by relatives for children with
employed mothers.
As discussed in Chapter 4, there is evidence that children experiencing
a sequence of caregivers over time (unstable care) differ in their develop-
ment from children experiencing more stable care. Do such developmental
differences also exist for children who experience multiple caregiving ar-
rangements in the course of a day or week? At present, data suggest that
there are families for whom a single child care setting does not suffice.
What are the implications for children when they are placed regularly in
more than one care setting?
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DATA COLLECTION AND RESEARCH
Health in Child Care Settings
2~3
Our review of existing research on illness and injury in child care
also highlighted directions for future study. Of particular importance are
two issues that have not been carefully studied: middle-ear infections
among children in group care and their possible implications for language
development, and rates and circumstances of injury, abuse, and neglect
in child care settings. With regard to both issues, future studies should
contrast the experiences of children in different types of care, including
care by parents. In addition, with regard to both issues, researchers should
employ prospective as well as retrospective research designs. Of significant
concern is the possibility that reports by parents, teachers, and physicians
of children's past injuries and illnesses are biased by their attitudes about
mothers' employment and the lack of availability of emergency services and
child care for sick children. Additional research is also needed to evaluate
the health and safety implications of peer contacts of children diagnosed
with HIV infection.
New Research Strategies and Issues
Throughout our review of the evidence there were indications that
knowledge about child care and development would be strengthened by the
use of particular research strategies and by addressing issues that have been
neglected to date. For example, there is a need for long-term longitudinal
research. Such research is needed both to understand the changing needs
of children in child care with increasing age (using more developmental
demarcations than that between infancy and the remaining preschool years)
and to expand knowledge concerning the long-term implications of early
child care experiences.
Research is needed on the implications of child care experiences for
children of different racial, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds. For example,
what are the implications for children in programs that stress multicultural
sensitivity, both regarding their own group identity and their attitudes about
children of other groups? Does such exposure have implications for later
adaptation to school? Are there differences in development according to
whether the child care environment is consonant or dissonant with the
cultural orientation of the home?
Research is also needed on the implications of child care participation
for children's mental health. For example, does child care result in early
identification of family and child mental health problems? Is there follow-
through on such problems? We pointed to evidence in Chapter 3 that
maternal participation in Head Start has implications for mothers' mental
health. Are there similar effects in other child care settings or only for
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284
WHO CARES FOR AMERICA 'S CHILDREN?
those that stress parental involvement? What are the implications of child
care participation for children from families stressed by divorce, mental
illness of parents, or parental tendencies toward abuse or neglect? In
general, what are the implications of participation in child care for the
mental health of children as well as parents?
As noted above, there have been few studies that examine the perspec-
tives of parents on child care choice and child care quality. User surveys are
needed that ask on what bases parents choose child care. 1b what extent
are parents aware of dimensions of quality? How important are particular
dimensions of quality in the choice of a child care setting?
The generalizability of results could be improved through use of na-
tionally representative data sets that include questions regarding child care.
It would be valuable to incorporate within national surveys particular ques-
tions, using subsamples of the survey. For example, observational data are
not readily obtainable in a large representative sample, but such data could
be obtained for a small subsample with selected demographic characteris-
tics.
Finally, studies that focus on school-age children are needed. The
evidence regarding child care for school-age children is extremely limited.
Studies should examine the extent of need for child care in this age range
and the implications of self-care for school-age children. And studies should
examine the dimensions of quality for child care for school-age children.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY AND PROGRAM ANALYSES
The panel recommends that policy and program analyses to
measure the costs, ejects, and effectiveness of alternative pro-
posals for the provision, financing, and regulation of child care
be an essential component of child care research. Federal and
state funding agencies, along with private foundations and corpo-
rations, should support policy analyses and program evaluations
to inform public- and pr~vate-sector decision making.
Between the late 1970s, when the National Day Care Study and the
National Day Care Home Study were completed, and the late 1980s there
was a dearth of national policy studies of child care issues. Throughout
this period mothers of very young children entered the labor force in
unprecedented numbers, and the need for and supply of out-of-home child
care programs and arrangements expanded significantly. Knowledge of the
costs and effects of government policies, employer policies and practices,
and community services and programs has not kept pace with social change.
As a result, there is a sparse base of rigorous scientific knowledge to guide
future policy and program development. Accordingly, the panel concludes
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DATA COLLECTION AND RESEARCH
285
that greater investment in evaluating the direct and indirect outcomes of
existing and proposed policy and program initiatives is urgently needed.
Federal, state, and local government policies play an important role
in influencing the nature and extent of social and economic change in
society as well as the responses to them. Federal labor and wage policies
affect employment and unemployment rates; income tax policies may affect
decisions, especially married mothers' decisions, to work; income transfer
policies may affect the employment decisions of single as well as married
mothers by providing incentives and disincentives to work; and federal
policies toward employers, through direct legislation, tax incentives, and
regulation, influence the extent and ways in which employers structure their
employee policies and benefits (Kamerman and Hayes, 1982~.
The federal and state governments have been the major fenders of
publicly subsidized child care and related services since World War II. The
federal government and some states provide direct subsidies through the
dependent care tax credit to offset the child care expenses of employed par-
ents. They supplement the funding available to schools for early childhood
programs and before- and after-school programs through such means as
direct grants for special programs and funding for compensatory education.
All states regulate child care services, and some support the development
and maintenance of resource and referral agencies and other supportive
services. Both the federal and the state governments invest in the training
and certification of child care providers, and the federal government also
provides some subsidies to employers who develop child care policies and
programs for their employees. As we have shown, however, patterns of
government funding have shifted over the past decade. Direct support to
providers for the provision of child care services, through programs such as
the Social Services Block Grant, has declined as more public resources, es-
pecially at the federal level, have given way to consumer subsidies through
the tax system.
Proponents of both approaches debate the effects of these changes
on the quantity and quality of child care services. Except in the most
general sense, there is little systematic knowledge of the consequences of
these policies for children, parents, employers, or child care providers. For
example, these patterns of support have clearly led to the development
of a diverse array of child care programs and providers, but what is not
known is the extent and ways in which they have altered the behavior of
providers and consumers and whether they have improved or decreased the
quality of care. As Congress and state legislatures now consider a range
of proposals for new child care initiatives, there is little empirical basis for
making choices. Accordingly, the panel concludes that studies should be
launched to assess the effects of different types of government child care
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WHO CARES FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN?
policies. In particular, the panel has identified several sets of questions that
merit attention:
· What are the effects of regulation on the supply and mix of child
care? Do more restrictive requirements discourage center care providers
or family day care providers from entering the market? Do they affect the
cost of providing care and the fees that are charged? Do they affect the
location of child care facilities and, as a consequence, their accessibility to
families living in different areas?
· What are the effects of alternative financing mechanisms on the
supply and mix of child care and on the behavior of consumers? Do
particular types of financing (e.g., direct provider subsidies, tax benefits
to consumers, vouchers) foster or discourage the development of different
types of programs provided under different institutional auspices? Do they
cause parents to prefer or select one type of care or another?
How does the growth of public school programs for 3- and 4-
year-olds affect the supply and mix of child care services for children of
these ages provided under other auspices? Has the growth of school-based
programs diminished the demand for center-based or family day care? Has
it affected the costs or quality of care provided under other auspices (e.g.,
through competition for a limited pool of qualified staffs?
· How have various employer policies and programs (e.g., on-site
child care, flexible spending programs, child care subsidies, resource and
referral services, parental leave) affected staff recruitment and retention in
different industries and geographic regions? How has it affected employee
productivity and firm profitability?
.
What are the effects and effectiveness of policies and programs to
improve the qualifications and wages of child care workers? Do investments
in education and training lead to increases in the supply and quality of child
care workers? What effects do wage subsidies have on the quality of staff
and retention rates? What are the effects of alternative interventions to
provide preservice and in-service training for family day care providers on
the supply of home-based providers and on the quality of care they offer?
.
1b what extent and in what ways does the availability of affordable
high-quality child care influence parents' decisions to work? ~ what extent
and in what ways is the lack of adequate care a barrier to labor force entry
or retention? Do the effects differ for mothers (and fathers) in different
social, economic, and cultural circumstances, among those in different
occupational categories, those of different ages, and those with different
educational backgrounds?
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DATA COLLECTION AND RESEARCH
287
The Family Support Act of 1988 offers an important opportunity to
examine the direct and indirect effects of a fundamental shift in the U.S.
approach to income security policy. The new act requires mothers of
preschool-age children to work, attend school, or participate in an employ-
ment training program as a condition of receiving welfare support. The act
requires the states to provide child care services for children of dependent
mothers, and it further requires them to provide "transition" child care
services for up to one year after mothers find jobs and become economi-
cally self-sufficient As the states move to implement the provisions of the
new law, analyses of the changes and families' adaptations to them could
offer valuable insights into many child care issues. The findings from this
(or other) natural experiment could provide the basis for formulating more
refined hypotheses for subsequent demonstration and experimentation and
for future policy.
This chapter outlines a broad agenda for future data collection and
research aimed at filling the gaps in the current knowledge basis. Idgether,
such work to expand the existing body of knowledge will significantly
strengthen the basis upon which decisions concerning the care of the
nation's children are made.
REFERENCES
Anderson, C., R. Nagle, W. Roberts, and J. Smith
1981 Attachment to substitute caregivers as a function of center quality and caregiver
involvement. Child Development 52:53-61.
Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy
1981 Senaces for Children: An Agenda for Research. Commission on Behavioral and
Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.:
National Academy Press.
Hayes, C., ed.
1987 Risking the Future: Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing. Panel on
Adolescent Pregnancy, Committee on Child Development Research and Public
Policy, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National
Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Hayes, C., and S. Kamerman
1983 Children of Working Parents: Erperiences and Outcomes. Panel on Work, Family,
and Community, Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy,
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research
Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Kamerman, S., and ~ Hayes, eds.
1982 Families That Work: Children in a Changing World. Panel on Work, Family,
and Community, Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy,
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research
Council. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.
McCartney, K., S. Scarr, D. Phillips, and S. Grajek
1985 Day care as intervention: Comparisons of varying quality programs. Develop-
mental Psychology 6:247-260.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
day care
