Families’ Work-childcare Coordination in the Context of Low-wage Work, Precarious Schedules and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Childcare and employment are interconnected for many families in the U.S., who regularly make a series of interdependent decisions about how best to meet their economic and caregiving needs (Weber, 2011). The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical but fragile fit between childcare and employment (Malik et al., 2020), and the associated consequences for family functioning and wellbeing, particularly for those working low-wage jobs (Banghart & Bedrick, 2020). Together, the papers in this symposium examine disruptions to work-childcare coordination for families prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, with attention paid to the precarity of unstable work schedules for low-income families and how the pandemic has further exacerbated these disruptions.
Using the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE), the first paper examines the prevalence and economic impacts of work-childcare disruptions for low-income households with children younger than 13. The second paper draws on two samples—one from the 2012 NSECE and one from a study with hourly service workers in a large city between 2019 and early 2020—to examine different dimensions of work schedule instability and the effects of childcare arrangements among families with children younger than 6. Finally, the third paper draws upon community-based participatory research with low-income and mixed-status Central American immigrant families to examine their childcare, education, and work experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on low-income households and families of color, these studies provide important insights into how such families may experience work-childcare disruptions in the pandemic/post-pandemic era.

Sub Unit

• Social Policy

Chair

• Danielle A Crosby, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Individual Presentations

• Disruptions to child care and work arrangements for low-income households: An examination of racial/ethnic differences in disruptions - Presenting Author: Kevin Ferreira van Leer, University of Connecticut; Non-Presenting Author: Julia Mendez, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Non-Presenting Author: Danielle A Crosby, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Instability in Work Schedules and Child Care Arrangements - Presenting Author: Ying-Chun Lin, Duke Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Anna Gassman-Pines, Duke Univeristy

• Central American Immigrant Families during COVID: Childcare, Education, and Work Experiences - Presenting Author: Colleen Vesely, George Mason University; Non-Presenting Author: Bethany L. Letiecq, George Mason University; Non-Presenting Author: Elizabeth Davis, George Mason University; Non-Presenting Author: Rachael D. Goodman, George Mason University