Patterns of Childcare Use for Young Children within Women’s Work/Family Pathways: A Group-Based Multi-Trajectory Modeling Approach

Abstract

Abstract Approximately 65 percent of US mothers with children aged six and under are employed. Although their ability to maintain employment generally depends on nonparental childcare, childcare has been relatively little-studied as it relates to mothers’ employment in the United States. With the NLSY97 (N = 2,108), I track childcare use, employment, second births, and coresidential partnership among women who are initially employed following a first birth. I use Group-Based Multi-Trajectory Modeling to identify the five most common pathways by which women combine and sequence these behaviors. I investigate the sociodemographic characteristics predicting each pathway. Three groups of women maintain high or moderate employment and make high use of childcare while their children are young: highly employed, partnered mothers who have a second birth (closely aligned with the privileged “having it all” norm); highly employed mothers of one child, about half of whom are single; and moderately employed (some full-time, some part-time) primarily single mothers who have a second birth. Two groups of women make less use of childcare when initially employed: partnered mothers who have a second birth and largely exit the labor force (closely aligned with the privileged “stay-at-home-mom” norm), and primarily single mothers with some part-time employment and one child. White and Hispanic women, and those with Bachelor’s degrees, are most likely to mirror the “having it all” norm. White women and those with Bachelor’s degrees are most likely to mirror the “stay-at-home mom” norm. I argue that improved access to adequate, affordable childcare could help to offset gender, socioeconomic, and race/ethnic employment disparities in the United States.