Family income, parent education, and perceived constraints as predictors of observed program quality and parent rated program quality

Torquati, Julia C.; Raikes, Helen H.; Huddleston-Casas, Catherine A.; Bovaird, James A.; Harris, Beatrice

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.03.004

Cited by 39 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Recent research shows that low-income parents have more positive perceptions of the quality of their childcare settings than do higher-income and more educated parents, even if the observed quality is rated more poorly (Torquati et al 2011). Our findings indicate that some of our study participants did have a perception of 'highquality' childcare that aligned with early childhood program standards, but others may have perceived 'high quality' differently and not considered these program standards as essential, or as important as other care characteristics.…”

Section: Parental Preferences For High-quality Carementioning

confidence: 96%

‘You have to choose your childcare to fit your work’: Childcare decision-making among low-income working families

Sandstrom

Chaudry

2012

Journal of Children and Poverty

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Regardless of their economic background, most working parents face the task of arranging childcare at some point. The decision-making process they experience is often complex, and this complexity is intensified for particular groups of families with limited financial and social resources. In this paper, we present findings from a three-year qualitative study of the childcare choices of low-income working families, many of whom were immigrants, had limited English proficiency, were parents of children with special needs, or represented some combination of these factors. The study explored families' current care arrangements, their reasons for selecting a particular form of childcare, and the characteristics of their ideal arrangements. Data were coded to identify themes in parental preferences, decision factors, and the barriers families faced in accessing their preferred care arrangements. Most significantly, the parents studied described their preferences for an environment where their children could learn and be in the presence of caring and trustworthy caregivers. About a third of the families said they preferred relatives as caregivers, and selected relatives to provide childcare. Other parents selected care according to cost, location, and availability of the provider; they described the challenges of locating affordable, high-quality care that met their nonstandard schedules. These findings have important implications for childcare policy.

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Section: Parental Preferences For High-quality Carementioning

confidence: 96%

‘You have to choose your childcare to fit your work’: Childcare decision-making among low-income working families

Sandstrom

Chaudry

2012

Journal of Children and Poverty

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“…Existing evidence from across a number of OECD countries reveals quite varied patterns in child care usage. Higher-income families have access to more regulated forms, and generally better quality ECEC services, while the most disadvantaged segments of the population use lower quality ECEC arrangements (Debacker 2008;Pavolini and Van Lancker 2018;Porter et al 2010;Raikes et al 2005;Torquati et al 2011;Van Lancker and Ghysels 2016). Researchers in British Columbia (BC) (Goelman and Pence 1988) found that level of family resources was highly correlated with the quality of ECEC services parents secure for their children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding early childhood education and care utilization in Canada: implications for demand and oversight

Varmuza

Perlman

White

2019

ICEP

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This study examined early childhood education and care (ECEC) utilization in Canada, focusing on use of unlicensed home child care (HCC) from an equity perspective. Data from the 2011 cycle of the General Social Survey (GSS) were used. Across Canada, parent responses reveal that 16.6% of children between the age of 12 months and entry to school were in unlicensed HCC. Another 24% of working parents reported having no regular form of non-parental childcare. Families with higher incomes were more likely to report using center-based care. Conversely, lower-income working parents with lower levels of education were more likely to use unlicensed HCC or report using no non-parental care at all. Comparison of parent responses in Ontario, however, where government estimates for the number of licensed and unlicensed HCC spaces are available, revealed that more parents report that their children are in licensed HCC than is possible. The lack of accurate parental reporting calls into question a key assumption of current regulatory systems, which is that parents are informed consumers of ECEC services. Given that many parents misreport the type of HCC their children use, and the equity concerns raised by the overall utilization patterns we found, we argue that governments need to take a more active role in oversight and support of HCC.

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“…The representativeness of these results may be limited, as the respective samples only consider children at specific age groups, and are limited to selected regions. 8 A few other North American studies with similar approaches are summarized in Torquati et al (2011), Howe et al (2013), Bassok et al (2017).…”

Section: Previous Studies and Differences In Information Asymmetriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 The existing studies often focus on the US market, including an economic study by Mocan (2007) and several studies by education scientists (Cryer and Burchinal 1997;Cryer, Tietze, and Wessels 2002; for an overview see Torquati et al 2011;Bassok et al 2017). These studies focus on differences in the quality ratings of parents and experts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information asymmetries between parents and educators in German childcare institutions

Camehl

Schober

Spieß

2018

Education Economics

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Economic theory predicts market failure in the market for early childhood education and care (ECEC) due to information asymmetries. We empirically investigate information asymmetries between parents and ECEC professionals in Germany, making use of a unique extension of the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). We compare quality perceptions by parents and by professionals across 734 institutions. We detect considerable information asymmetries that differ across quality measures but less so by parental socio-economic background or center characteristics. Both similarly contribute to explaining variations in the information gap. We conclude that information is not readily available to parents; an issue that should be addressed by policy-makers. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may ARTICLE HISTORY

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Family income, parent education, and perceived constraints as predictors of observed program quality and parent rated program quality

Abstract: "Family income, parent education, and perceived constraints as predictors of observed program quality and parent rated program quality" (2011). Faculty

Cited by 39 publications

References 48 publications

‘You have to choose your childcare to fit your work’: Childcare decision-making among low-income working families

‘You have to choose your childcare to fit your work’: Childcare decision-making among low-income working families

Understanding early childhood education and care utilization in Canada: implications for demand and oversight

Information asymmetries between parents and educators in German childcare institutions

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