Measurement of Child Care Arrangement Stability:

1. Measurement of Child Care Arrangement Stability: A Review and Case Study Using Oregon Child Care Subsidy Data Roberta B. Weber • Research Questions: • 1. What is known about child care arrangement stability? • To what extent do the four child care arrangement stability measures that have • emerged in the literature describe the same phenomenon? • How stable are the subsidized child care arrangements of preschool children in • female-headed households? Results Research question1 • Review of Over 30 Years of Child Care Stability Literature • Complexity of stability phenomenon makes measurement challenging • Two major types of child care stability: caregiver and arrangement • Four quantitative measures of child care arrangement stability have emerged • - Number of providers • - Transition: percent who remain with same provider and percent who change providers at least once • - Prime primary provider ratio (months with primary provider who provided the most months of care divided by all • observed months • - Duration of arrangement • Results from studies using the four measures are not comparable due to differences • in study purposes, conceptualization of measures, and methods Data Sources: Oregon Child Care Subsidy Data: October 1997 – September 2001 Oregon Department of Human Services Client Maintenance System Data (parents enrolled in subsidy program) October 1997 – September 2001 • Key Terms • Caregiver—a person who cares for a • child • Provider—a facility in which care is • provided • Primary provider—provider who gave • most hours of care in a month • Arrangement—a unique combination • of a child and a provider • Primary arrangement—arrangement with • most hours in a month Analysis Sample Children under age 5 48,862 Female-headed households 35,538 Primary providers 38,277 Secondary providers 10,321 Primary arrangements 102,852 Secondary arrangements 20,194 Research question 2 • Extent to Which the Four Measures Describe the Same Phenomenon • Three are child-level measures and the fourth, duration, is measured at arrangement level. • Correlation values depend on amount of time children are observed. At 12 months the three child-level • measures are correlated at .83 and higher. • All four measures describe distinct aspect of child care arrangement stability Graphic Representation of Stability of Subsidized Child Care Primary Arrangements of Ten Children Observed for 36 Months Research question 3 • Stability of Subsidized Arrangements of Oregon Children Under Age 5 in Female-headed Households at 12 Months • Children had from 1 to 8 primary providers (M 2.40 SD 1.34) They also had from 0 to 6 secondary providers (M .48 SD .79). • 31% children were with the same primary provider over the 12 months and 69% changed providers at least once. • 73% of the 12 months were with the primary provider who had provided the most hours of care. • Half of arrangements had ended by 3 months; the median increased to 4 months for those children observed for over 3 years. • Stability levels of Oregon children, whose care was subsidized, were lower than stability levels reported from nationally • representative samples, but similar to those found in studies of low-income children participating in assistance programs. Recommendations for future research • Six major recommendations for further research flow from this study: • The analysis using the three child-level stability measures should be done with additional data sets to confirm • that the three measures describe the same construct, stability. Since the fourth measure, duration, is analyzed • at the arrangement level, it cannot be correlated with the three child-level measures. • 2. A team of stability researchers should create consensus on methodology for the four stability measures, use • them on additional data sets, compare findings, and thereby substantively increase knowledge of the level of • stability children experience. • 3. Conduct an ethnographic study of stability of a small subset of families from a sample of families whose child • care arrangement stability is being measured by the four quantitative measures. Use findings to increase • understanding of arrangement stability and to further refine existing measures. • 4. A team of stability researchers should explore adaptation of existing measures or creation of new measures to • better capture the complexity inherent in child care stability. • 5. Using the four stability measures in data sets that include child and family outcome data to test the ability of any • or all of the measures to predict outcomes. • 6. Create and test a model that shows what child, family, and community factors are associated with levels of child • care stability. • Ten cases of children who received subsidy for a total of 36 months are displayed. • First line (yellow) for each child describes months child was observed in subsidy program. • Lines 2 – 11 for each child represents a separate arrangement (see Key) for that child. • Subsidy and arrangement spells (continuous time) are numbered. • Values for the four child care arrangement stability measures are on the far right for each child. • If the end of a first or second arrangement spell was not observed (right censored), the term • “cens” is listed instead of number of months. Contact: Roberta B. Weber, Oregon State University Bobbie.Weber@oregonstate.edu