Abstract
A sample of 145 parents whose 5- to 12-year-old children attended one of 25 profit-making day care centers located in three southeastern states completed a questionnaire designed to determine how and why they selected day care for their school-age children. Results revealed that the typical parent visited two or three centers, including the one they ultimately selected, before making a choice. Parents' most common first source of information about day care came from friends; very few first obtained information from child development specialists, licensers, or doctors. Across the three communities, the parents' rank-ordered reasons for selecting day care were strikingly similar. Health and safety, caregiver quality, the child's social development, and the child's educational development were the most important considerations; cost was the least important consideration. In contrast to earlier research with a preschool sample, no demographic or day care selection variables were associated reliably with selecting better quality day care by these parents. Follow-up telephone interviews with 28 parents yielded several possible factors that could have operated to minimize the prediction of quality day care in the present study.
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