The influence of race/ethnicity on disadvantaged mothers’ child care arrangements

Abstract

This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study [Reichman, N., Teitler, J., Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. (2001). The fragile families and child wellbeing study: Sample and design. Children and Youth Services Review, 23, 303–326] to describe primary child care arrangements of employed, predominantly low-income mothers of 1-year olds, and to quantify their child care calculus in the post-welfare reform era. The sorting of children across arrangement types differs by mother's race/ethnicity: Hispanic children are most likely to be cared for maternal kin, Black children in organized centers, and White children by their fathers. Multinomial regression reveals that the association between race/ethnicity and arrangement type is largely – but not entirely – accounted for by mothers’ socioeconomic, household, job, and cultural characteristics; interaction tests show that the associations between arrangement type and both poverty status and marital status are contingent on race/ethnicity. These findings indicate that disadvantage does not translate into child care arrangements similarly across racial/ethnic groups and child care policy must take into account structural and cultural differences associated with parents’ race/ethnicity.