How Parents Choose Preschool and Childcare: A Research Guide

Introduction: The Challenge of Finding Quality Childcare

Finding childcare for a young child can be a daunting experience — not only for new parents but also for those navigating the process a second or third time. There are various ways of approaching the search, one of which is through the lens of human development. Vandell (2004) reports that child care research has made considerable progress in addressing questions about the effects of child care quality, the effects of amount and timing of early child care, and the effects of different types of care — such as centers, child care homes, and relative care. This paper discusses the process of locating childcare and the concerns that parents commonly encounter during that process.

Young children benefit from experiences and environments that build on their existing life-world. Different types of children's services provide young children with diverse experiences. An awareness of the variation in the ways parents conceptualize early childhood education and care (ECEC) services — and make choices for their young children — is therefore important to developing a greater understanding of the impacts of such services on children and their families (Noble, 2007).

Women in the Workforce and the Rise of Non-Parental Care

As women began to enter the workforce in large numbers, daycare became an increasingly pressing concern, as the traditional model of the stay-at-home mother began to diminish. Meyers and Jordan (2006) explain that as women approached equality with men in their representation in the U.S. labor force, child care became a critical concern both for families and for community development professionals. For parents-as-providers — most often mothers — the price, availability, quality, and reliability of childcare affect labor market attachment and hours of employment, particularly when children are young. Over the long term, mothers' employment accommodations for caregiving have consequences for career advancement, earning trajectories, and gendered wage differentials. For parents-as-caregivers, the safety and quality of care has implications for psychological well-being, management of work/family demands, and continuity of employment (Meyers & Jordan, 2006).

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed substantial changes in the lives of young children as maternal employment increased and more children participated in non-parental care arrangements. The available evidence indicates that these care arrangements vary widely in quality, amount, and type. These variations — and the large number of children in care (over 10 million children in the United States in 1999) — raised several important questions that are also central to this research: (1) Does quality of early child care matter? (2) Does amount and timing of early child care matter? (3) Does type of early child care matter? Answers to these questions matter for parents and childcare personnel who are invested in the well-being of children. They also matter for developmental theory, given their relevance to fundamental issues such as the role of early versus later experience and the efficacy of enrichment and intervention efforts (Vandell, 2004).

Grandparents as Childcare Providers

Another option for childcare is the use of grandparents. Grandparents, like "parents" and "families," are not a homogeneous group. They may be in their forties or their eighties; they may be employed full-time or retired; they may be gregarious and loving, or distant and reserved. Some grandparents live alone, while others co-reside with their children and grandchildren. Some are independent and self-confident; others may lack initiative or be quite dependent. Grandparents fill diverse roles, one of which is the regular care of grandchildren.

Grandparents themselves were quite specific about their caring role being different from simply minding or babysitting. They spoke about caring within the context of knowing not only their grandchild but also the broader family. This knowledge enabled them to be aware of and engaged with their grandchildren. They saw themselves as providing stability, continuity of care, routine, and consistency — qualities they contrasted with those of staff in a childcare center. Grandparents stated that their relationship with the child was more personal, and they believed that in a childcare facility children are often seen as just another fee (Goodfellow, 2003).

Accreditation, Quality Standards, and Economic Importance

In recent years, more than fifty states and localities have formed teams that have attempted to measure the economic importance of childcare from regional, labor mobilization, and human development perspectives (Warner, 2006). Childcare has a uniquely complex importance for an economy: it can influence the productivity and participation of both the current and future workforce, affecting both parents and children (Pratt & Kay, 2006).

Research has reported that prior to the recent concern for the quality of school-age care programs, policymakers, educators, and parents were already concerned about the quality of infant, toddler, and preschool care and education programs. In the early 1980s, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) began an accreditation program that outlined the criteria necessary to support the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development of young children from birth to age eight. NAEYC defines accreditation as a process in which a program's director, staff, and parents voluntarily work with representatives of the association to determine whether the program meets nationally recognized criteria for high quality. Programs achieving accreditation have demonstrated a commitment to providing the highest quality care and education (Hall & Cassidy, 2002).

Brennan (2007) argues that child care is a societal institution that separates children from adult socio-cultural communities through the organization of the center's physical and social space. Young children and their caregivers in group care situations are physically separated from adult social activities, a reality encapsulated in both the cultural and social arrangements of the childcare center. These are aspects that parents often overlook when searching for childcare, yet they are important dynamics to consider. Parents want to know that their children are in an environment that offers positive interactions, learning opportunities, and the chance to learn from peers. While evaluating a potential daycare, it is important to research the facility — including its length of time in operation and any charges or complaints filed against it — as these are meaningful indicators of quality. Brennan further explains that learning by simply being present in a center involves picking up values, skills, and behaviors through close involvement with a socializing agent. There is a quiet absorption of children into community life through natural participation in its daily rituals and tasks, though this requires children's access to community activities — access that is shaped by the extent to which caregivers organize specialized, child-focused activities or expect children to learn through intentional participation in shared endeavors.