Characteristics of Child Care Supply During Nonstandard Hours: Findings from 6 States

• In Event: Factors Associated with Access to Child Care

Abstract

A significant portion of young children need child care on evenings, nights, and/or weekends while their parents work nonstandard hour (NSH) schedules. To date, little is understood about the intersection of the supply of NSH child care, family characteristics, and neighborhood characteristics. The overall goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of NSH child care within six states.

Our aims are the following: (1) describe and compare the characteristics of programs that do and do not provide NSH child care and, (2) describe and compare the demographic characteristics of those living in neighborhoods that do and do not provide NSH child care. Child Care Data Center (CCDC) data, our organization’s data set that houses information on program supply, and the Child Opportunity Index 2.0 dataset for neighborhood characteristics were merged for this study. To address the first aim, we conducted descriptive analyses to identify programs that provide NSH and, specifically, which hours of care they provide. Next, we tested whether there were significant differences in program characteristics and neighborhood characteristics between programs that do and do not provide NSH care. We conducted a series of latent profile analyses to derive subgroups (profiles) based on hours of operation of child care providers. We identified three latent profiles:

• Profile 1: providers that offer little, if any, NSH.
• Profile 2: providers that offer some NSH.
• Profile 3: providers that offer the most NSH.

We are in the process of conducting a series of structural equation models to examine whether there are differences in program and/or neighborhood characteristics among the profiles. We are creating a series of maps so that audiences can visualize the relationships between NSH child care supply and overlay family neighborhood characteristics at the census tract level.

Some key findings so far include:

• As shown in Figure 1, NSH providers are more likely to be located in urban areas.
• As Figure 2 demonstrates, Census tracts with higher COI scores (i.e., more child opportunity) are less likely to have NSH providers; the opposite remains true of census tracts with lower COI scores.

Although we are still in the process of conducting analyses, we have found several potential implications for the field. Policymakers and advocates can legislatively and administratively use these results to understand and react to the existing landscape of NSH care: where are providers offering some or many NSH of care, and where are there existing gaps in that coverage? Our final results, to be completed by December 2022, will highlight communities across six states that may have a limited supply of NSH child care. Furthermore, our initial results indicate that communities with lower COI scores may have a larger supply of NSH child care. This is an encouraging sign for the equitable distribution of care; because underprivileged and underfunded communities contribute significantly to NSH-hour workforce, we would assume that the same communities would need more NSH child care. However, further research is needed to understand the true dynamics of parental demand for NSH child care.

Authors

• Alex Cooper, Child Care Aware of America
  Presenting Author

• Kristina Haynie, Child Care Aware of America

• Clare Waterman, Child Care Aware of America

• Johayra Bouza, University of Miami

• Veronica A. Fernandez, University of Miami