IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v53y2015icp147-156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is stability always a good thing? Low-income mothers' experiences with child care transitions

Author

Listed:
  • Speirs, Katherine E.
  • Vesely, Colleen K.
  • Roy, Kevin

Abstract

Recent research has drawn attention to the deleterious effects of instability on child development. In particular, child care instability may make it hard for children to form secure attachments to their care providers which may have a negative impact on their development and school readiness. These effects seem to be heightened for low-income children and families. However, there remains a lack of clarity regarding how and why low-income mothers make changes to their child care arrangements. Using ethnographic data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study, this study explored 36 low-income mothers' experiences of child care instability and stability and the factors that promoted each. We identified four kinds of child care transitions: planned, averted, failed, and forced. Financial resources, transportation and the availability of care during the hours that mothers work were important for helping mothers find and maintain preferred care arrangements. Our findings have implications for research on child care instability as well as the development of policy and programs to help low-income families secure high quality child care and maintain stable employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Speirs, Katherine E. & Vesely, Colleen K. & Roy, Kevin, 2015. "Is stability always a good thing? Low-income mothers' experiences with child care transitions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 147-156.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:53:y:2015:i:c:p:147-156
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740915001097
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tran, Henry & Winsler, Adam, 2011. "Teacher and center stability and school readiness among low-income, ethnically diverse children in subsidized, center-based child care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2241-2252.
    2. Ansari, Arya & Winsler, Adam, 2013. "Stability and sequence of center-based and family childcare: Links with low-income children's school readiness," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 358-366.
    3. Cynthia Miller, 2006. "Stability and Change in Childcare and Employment: Evidence from the United States," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 195(1), pages 118-132, January.
    4. Lowe, Edward D. & Weisner, Thomas S., 2004. "`You have to push it--who's gonna raise your kids?': situating child care and child care subsidy use in the daily routines of lower income families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 143-171, February.
    5. Karen Mason & Karen Kuhlthau, 1992. "The perceived impact of child care costs on women’s labor supply and fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 29(4), pages 523-543, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schmitt, Sara A. & Mihalec-Adkins, Brittany & Lipscomb, Shannon T. & Pratt, Megan E. & Horvath, Gregor, 2022. "Longitudinal relations among child care stability during the prekindergarten year and behavior problems," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Priyank Arora & Wei Wei & Senay Solak, 2021. "Improving Outcomes in Child Care Subsidy Voucher Programs under Regional Asymmetries," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(12), pages 4435-4454, December.
    3. Aranda, Rodrigo & Lamprecht, Caroline & Ribar, David C., 2024. "Spells of subsidized childcare arrangements and subsidy non-use," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schmitt, Sara A. & Mihalec-Adkins, Brittany & Lipscomb, Shannon T. & Pratt, Megan E. & Horvath, Gregor, 2022. "Longitudinal relations among child care stability during the prekindergarten year and behavior problems," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Greenburg, Jordan E. & Hines, Caitlin & Winsler, Adam, 2020. "Predictors of school mobility from public school pre-K to kindergarten," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Johnson, Anna D. & Padilla, Christina M. & Votruba-Drzal, Elizabeth, 2017. "Predictors of public early care and education use among children of low-income immigrants," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 24-36.
    4. Lee, Grace H.Y. & Lee, Sing Ping, 2014. "Childcare availability, fertility and female labor force participation in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 71-85.
    5. Orman, Cuneyt & Goksel, Turkmen & Gurdal, Mehmet Y, 2011. "The Baby Boom, Baby Busts, and Grandmothers," MPRA Paper 28782, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Elise Gould, 2004. "Decomposing the effects of children's health on mother's labor supply: is it time or money?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(6), pages 525-541, June.
    7. Anna Matysiak & Dorota Węziak-Białowolska, 2016. "Country-Specific Conditions for Work and Family Reconciliation: An Attempt at Quantification," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 475-510, October.
    8. Wai Kai Hou & Li Liang & Clint Hougen & George A. Bonanno, 2021. "Regulatory Flexibility of Sustaining Daily Routines and Mental Health in Adaptation to Financial Strain: A Vignette Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Johnson, Anna D. & Martin, Anne & Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, 2011. "Who uses child care subsidies? Comparing recipients to eligible non-recipients on family background characteristics and child care preferences," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1072-1083, July.
    10. Liu, Meirong & Chen, Manrong & Anderson, Steven G., 2014. "Factors influencing child care-related maternal work exits," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 168-176.
    11. Tang, Sandra & Coley, Rebekah Levine & Votruba-Drzal, Elizabeth, 2012. "Low-income families' selection of child care for their young children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2002-2011.
    12. Karen Norberg, 1998. "The Effects of Daycare Reconsidered," NBER Working Papers 6769, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Goksel, Türkmen & Gurdal, Mehmet Y. & Orman, Cuneyt, 2014. "The baby boom, baby busts, and the role of grandmothers in childcare," MPRA Paper 65438, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Jonas Wood & Karel Neels, 2019. "Local Childcare Availability and Dual-Earner Fertility: Variation in Childcare Coverage and Birth Hazards Over Place and Time," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 913-937, December.
    15. Tarja K. Viitanen, 2004. "The Impact of Children on Female Earnings in Britain," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 415, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Stefan Bauernschuster & Timo Hener & Helmut Rainer, 2013. "Does Expanding Public Child Care Encourage Fertility? County-Level Evidence from Germany," ifo Working Paper Series 158, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    17. Markowitz, Anna J. & Ryan, Rebecca M. & Johnson, Anna D., 2014. "Child care subsidies and child care choices: The moderating role of household structure," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 230-240.
    18. Ronnenberg, Megan M. & Conrad, Aislinn R., 2024. "Economic hardship and the role of cost in childcare decisions: An exploratory study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    19. Karsten Hank & Michaela R. Kreyenfeld, 2001. "Childcare and fertility in (western) Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2001-019, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    20. Heinrich Hock & Delia Furtado, 2009. "Female Work and Fertility in the United States: Effects of Low-Skilled Immigrant Labor," Working papers 2009-20, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:53:y:2015:i:c:p:147-156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.