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The issues that will be addressed are that all parents struggle with daycare and employment, however a single parent in particular single mothers can and do have more problems juggling daycare and their employment. This needs to be addressed because the single mother is more likely to make changes to their employment status because of the daycare problems.
If single mothers do not have close friends and relatives to help with daycare, the mothers end up missing work because of problems with daycare. The child or children could be sick and not be able to attend daycare, they may be having behavioral problems that lead to the mother having to leave or miss work and stay at home with the child. Daycare may cost more than the mother can afford to pay.
Forry and Hofferth (2011) discusses the “association between child care subsidies and parents’ experience of child care related work disruptions while controlling for individual, family, child care and community characteristics” (Forry & Hofferth, 2011). During this study there were two questions asked, the first question posed was asking “is receipt of a child care subsidy a negative predictor of experiencing a child care–related work disruption?” the second question posed to the same parents over a period of time, “do parents experience fewer child care–related work disruptions while receiving a child care subsidy as compared with while not receiving a subsidy?” (Forry & Hofferth, 2011).
The first study used longitudinal survey and “verified administrative data collected in Montgomery County, Maryland, using quasi-experimental design” (Forry & Hofferth, 2011). The second study was a subsample of families that was taken from the Fragile and Child Wellbeing study that were either receiving child care subsidy or were financially eligible to receive child care subsidy. “The use of multivariate change analyses applied to quasi-experimental data also sets this study apart from current literature in the field. (Forry & Hofferth, 2011).
One thing that was surprising in this article was it was found that even when there was more than one adult in the home there was still disruption in child care and work related disruptions. This was found to be because even though there was more adults in the home, usually the multiple adults in the home was for financial reasons so the adults were working and not available to help with daycare.
Hofferth and Collins (2000), discusses the ways that childbearing and child rearing affect a mother’s ability to maintain stable employment. The article shows that mother who have recently given birth, have a large number of children and young children are more likely to quit their job at any given time. The article shows that mothers who have lower paying jobs and have young children and do not have the convenient access to center based child care programs are more likely to leave their jobs.
The research method that was used for this study was a discrete time logit models, this was used to examine the relationship between employed mothers of preschool children who leave their jobs and the constraints of child care, the model estimates the log odds of leaving “work in any given month as a function of number and ages of children, the expected birth of a child, job-related characteristics, given that she was employed in the prior month” (Hofferth & Collins, 2000).
Gordon, Kaestner and Korenman (2008) discuss how the type of child care a mother uses is connected to employment absences but in different ways. An example is when a mother uses a larger day care center there is less likely to be employment absences because of provider unavailability, but rather more absences due to child illnesses. When using a smaller day care center there it is more likely the mother will miss work because of provider unavailability and this is the reason more mothers quit their jobs, however the mothers who quit work because of provider unavailability are in the lower wage bracket.
This study was conducted by building on the prior study discussed by the authors in 2005 regarding the offsetting consequences of the type of child care on employment absences and the parents leaving their employment. The questions asked in this study was “(a) Are parents who use larger and more formal care settings more likely to stay home from work when their child is sick but less likely to miss work because of provider unavailability than parents who use smaller and less formal child-care settings? (b) Do work absences because of child illness and provider unavailability have negative consequences for maternal employment?” (Gordon, Kaestner & Korenman, 2008).
The longitudinal method was used for this study, there were 1,364 children and families who were participants. The first part of the study was between birth and three years of age of the child, phone interviews were conducted every three months. Child care was divided into four groups to look at, dedicate child care facility, private home based child care with five or more children, home based child care with three or four children, and home based with only one or two children. Mothers were asked if their child had been sick in the last month and if they had to miss work because of the illness. The study was limited because of the modest response rate by the parents and that the sample was not nationwide, rather only nine state were used.
Meyers, Heintze and Wolf (2002) discuss the growing demand for substitute child care because of more mothers working and returning to work after giving birth to their child. The article reports that there is a gap between mothers and non-mothers in regards to employment because the mother has to pay child care rates. This article shows that low income mothers are able to utilize day care for children when the day care is subsidized by the federal Welfare programs. The article does suggest that although there are programs for subsidized child care there are few mothers utilizing the programs.
This study used data collected from low-income single mothers, who were either currently receiving welfare or had recently received welfare, the mothers were welfare recipients in California. There were two questions that were asked, “What are the chances that these mothers would receive child care subsidies if they were to use child care, and how would variations in the likelihood of being subsidized affect these mothers’ labor market activities?” (Meyers, Heintze & Wolf, 2002).
The study used a two stage model to analyze the effect of child care subsidies on labor market activity. When looking at the stages it was found that there was a probability that each mother who was a participant would have been subsidized if she had used child care. The study found that 69% of mothers who could have used subsidized child care were not using it, and they were either using a family member or paying out of pocket for child care (Meyers, Heintze & Wolf, 2002).
Montes and Halterman, (2011) discuss how the impact of child care problems can and do affect a parents’ employment. What was found from this study is that all families with children young and older face employment challenges, it was discussed that because many jobs and the school hours do not coincide there is a problem there, do the parents take the job that starts before school, or starts after school. It was found that a parent’s education level does not make any difference in the issues of employment and child care, and the study showed that lower-income families only have a slightly higher chance of having to modify their work than higher-income families.
A national representative random digit dial survey Gallup panel was used to gather the answers for this study. The household criterial for the study was that families had a child or children ages 0 – 13 years of age. The phone survey lasted for approximately 15 – 20 minutes and the participants consented to respond to the questions. The study found that among some of the issues facing single parents was having a child with behavioral issues increased the odd of having child care related employment changes and well as having children was also a significant increase in the parents job performance.
The questions that will be asked are “in the last six months, did you have to make a change to your employment status because of problems with child care? Are you a single parent household or two parents household?”
The hypothesis is more single parent households will make a change to their employment status because of child care problems.
Methodology
Purpose of the Study:
What has been found in past studies is that single parents have made more changes to their work i.e.: stopped working, changed jobs, had to take a day off, and had to shorten their hours at work. The reasons for the changes in the employment status of the single parent is because of their child or children’s behaviors, being sick and not being able to attend day care, lack of day care providers and no family or close friends to help with child care.
This study, Child Care Problems and Employment will examine the connection between child care problems whether the child is sick, or the lack of child are and the employment for parents who are working. The study asks the questions; in the last six months, did you have to make a change to your employment status because of problems with child care? Are you a single parent household or two parents household? With the results of the study, the employment patterns of parents will be looked at and see if there can be more ways to help families who struggle with child care problems and the affects the problems have on their employment status.
Participants:
The participants for this study was household with children newborn to 12 years old, the households were comprised of single parents who’s income ranged from $10,000 to $50,000 yearly and households with more than parent in the same income range. The study will cover all areas of the United States and will have parents who are single and married.
Materials and Procedures:
A longitude study will be used to follow the families over time to find out if the parents and children have any major life changes that can affect their employment status.
References Forry, N. D., & Hofferth, S. L. (2011). Maintaining work: The influence of child care subsidies on child care—related work disruptions. Journal of Family Issues, 32(3), 346-368. doi: 10.1177/0192513X10384467 Hofferth, S., & Collins, N. (2000). Child care and employment turnover. Population Research and Policy Review, 19(4), 357-395. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/206262167?accountid=3783 Gordon, R. A., Kaestner, R., & Korenman, S. (2008). Child care and work absences: Trade-offs by type of care. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70(1), 239-254. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/219767893?accountid=3783 Meyers, M. K., Heintze, T., & Wolf, D. A. (2002). Child care subsidies and the employment of welfare recipients. Demography, 39(1), 165-179. Montes, G., & Halterman, J. (2011). The impact of child care problems on employment: Findings from a national survey of us parents. Academic Pediatrics, 11(1), 80-87. doi:10.1016/j.acap.2010.11.005
