Abstract
Family child care, a paid child care service operated out of a care provider’s home, is a common child care choice for working parents. While studies show positive associations between providers’ income and care quality, little is known about their resource management and perceived resource well-being. Using surveys and interviews, this study explored the association between household income and overall perceived resource well-being among seven family child care providers in the Los Angeles, California area. The surveys offered providers’ demographic information and characteristics about their child care businesses. The analysis of the interview data identified four resource well-being themes regarding perceptions about: past and present economic situations, demands on time, contributions providers’ family members make to support the business functions, and quality and availability of community resources. The findings suggest household income predicts little about how providers perceive their overall resource well-being. Understanding income as only a part of resource management may better elucidate links between income and child care quality. Discussions include implications for financial counselors and planners.
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Notes
Dollar values are in US currency throughout the paper.
Target is a national chain store selling, among other things, foods, apparel, home furnishing, electronics, magazines, toiletries, and prescription and non-prescription drugs.
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Acknowledgements
The NIH Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant No. P20MD003938) for supporting Yoko Mimura, Tom Cai, and Holli Tonyan to write this paper. California State University Northridge’s Faculty Development Probationary Faculty Support Program also supported Yoko Mimura to have additional time to write this paper. Provost Harold Hellenbrand and Dean Stella Theodoulo at California State University Northridge supported Holli Tonyan in collecting the data used for this study. We thank the child care providers who generously participated in this research, the students in the California State University Northridge Infancy and Early Childhood Lab who helped conduct this research, and the collaboration with the Child Care Resource Center for helping us study family child care providers. We presented an earlier version of this study at the American Council on Consumer Interest annual meeting at Clearwater Beach, Florida, in 2015.
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This study was funded by the NIH Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) from the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant No. P20MD003938).
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Yoko Mimura declares that she has no conflict of interest. Tom Cai declares that he has no conflict of interest. Holli Tonyan declares that she has no conflict of interest. Joan Koonce declares that she has no conflict of interest.
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Mimura, Y., Cai, Y., Tonyan, H. et al. Resource Well-Being among Family Child Care Business Owners. J Fam Econ Iss 40, 408–422 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-019-09620-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-019-09620-8