Unsupervised Time: Family and Child Factors Associated with Self-Care

Abstract

to be published as part of Assessing the New Federalism, a joint project of Child Trends and the Urban Institute.

Measuring the Risk of Physical Neglect in a Population-Based Sample

“…Although the rate of young children being left home alone seems low, it is and would be expected to be low in comparison to the high-risk families enrolled in the home visiting program in Hawaii discussed earlier (Duggan et al, 2004). However, the rates reported by mothers of older children are consistent with the findings from the National Survey of America's Families analyzed by Vandivere, Tout, Zaslow, Calkins, and Capizzano (2003): 7% of 6-to 9-year-olds and 25% of 9-to 12-year-olds were left home alone for periods, designated as "self-care". In addition, 3% of households were considered "food insecure with hunger" at any time in the month prior to the national survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Nord, Andrews, & Carlson, 2005), compared to 2% of households in our study indicating that they were unable to provide enough food at least once in the month prior to being surveyed.…”

Nonadult Supervision of Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Results from 61 National Population-Based Surveys

“…In MENA, ESA, and WCA, both positive and negative associations with socioeconomic status coexist for children home alone. Analyses with national data in the U.S. show that being home alone is more common in upper-income families [32,37,48], even if few children aged 5–7 years are home alone regardless of their income level [36] and children from both low- and high-income groups spend about the same amount of time home alone [32]. This may be partly explained by richer families’ higher likelihood to live in neighborhoods perceived as safe [36].…”

“…Other factors, such as the child’s sex, maternal education, household income, and the presence of other adults and children in the household, [32,33] do not consistently increase the likelihood of children being home alone [32,34]. Thus, some studies have found that boys are slightly more likely than girls to be home alone, yet this association was not significant for all age groups [32,35]. Similarly, some evidence has shown that higher maternal education is associated with a higher likelihood of children being home alone, particularly when the mother has at least a college degree [32,35], yet this association does not hold for children over nine years of age [36].…”

“…Thus, some studies have found that boys are slightly more likely than girls to be home alone, yet this association was not significant for all age groups [32,35]. Similarly, some evidence has shown that higher maternal education is associated with a higher likelihood of children being home alone, particularly when the mother has at least a college degree [32,35], yet this association does not hold for children over nine years of age [36]. Whereas Vandivere et al [32] found home alone to be more common in high-income families (even if both low- and high-income groups spent about the same amount of time home alone), other researchers have found no significant association after controlling for other factors (e.g., parents’ perceived neighborhood safety [34]).…”

“…Similarly, some evidence has shown that higher maternal education is associated with a higher likelihood of children being home alone, particularly when the mother has at least a college degree [32,35], yet this association does not hold for children over nine years of age [36]. Whereas Vandivere et al [32] found home alone to be more common in high-income families (even if both low- and high-income groups spent about the same amount of time home alone), other researchers have found no significant association after controlling for other factors (e.g., parents’ perceived neighborhood safety [34]). Finally, some studies have found that children are more likely to be home alone in single parent families [32,37] and the presence of additional adults in the household who are not the parent’s spouse or partner does not decrease the likelihood of home alone [32].…”