Accommodating life's demands: Childcare choices for student parents in higher education

Abstract

Affordable, accessible, and quality childcare is important for student parents in higher education who are raising children under the age of 5. With a growing student parent population (Noll et al., 2017), it is important to explore how student parents make decisions on childcare for their children, ages birth to 5, to support their pursuit of higher education. Limited research exists on student parents’ childcare choices and the factors that inform their decisions. To identify how student parents choose childcare for their children, we conducted 36 in-depth interviews with student parents attending a 4 year university in the Western United States. We relied upon the accommodation model (Meyers & Jordan, 2006) to guide our research analysis as it allowed for a deeper understanding of the process and outcomes of childcare decision-making. Our findings demonstrate that student parents have diverse childcare needs. Student parents’ choices are shaped by larger social forces, particularly family necessity, family financial resources, beliefs and aspirations, community context, and social networks. We provide recommendations for institutions of higher education, policymakers, and researchers to support the educational pursuits of student parents and provide childcare that best suits their needs and desires.