Understanding Parents' Child Care Decision-Making: A Foundation for Child Care Policy Making

摘要

Policies such as those related to child care subsidies and quality rating and improvement systems are designed to increase the likelihood that child care and education arrangements meet developmental needs of children and employment needs of parents. Ultimately, parents select child care arrangements, and the quality and stability of these arrangements are affected by parents decisions. The decisions parents make regarding child care affect the ability of child care policies to achieve desired outcomes. How well policies fit into and support the complex parental child care decision-making process affects achievement of policy goals. Child care is one component of a complex set of family management decisions that are often made simultaneously. For example, parents commonly make child care, employment, and transportation decisions at the same time. Parents attempt to find a child care solution that meets both child development and employment goals. Parents work to find the solution which best fits their situation, but the resulting child care arrangement(s) may or may not meet all their goals.