Children in self-care: An examination of research confounds

Abstract

Families using self-care, in-home, and out-of-home child care arrangements were compared on a number of demographic variables. Certain variables (e.g., family income; marital status) were, as expected, related to the type of child care in use. However, one unexpected trend also was identified: regardless of the type of child care arrangement reported by parents, as the age of children increased across the out-of-home, in-home, and self-care family groups so too did the number of hours children spent at home alone. This trend is discussed in relation to two confounding areas of which researchers should be aware when conducting school-age child care needs assessment surveys and conducting self-care studies: (a) the context within which the self-care decision is made; and (b) the reasoning that goes into making the self-care decision.