Home-based Child Care Providers Research Articles

Perspectives of Home-Based Child Care Providers in New Mexico on Barriers and Facilitators to Participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, 2021-2022.

This study examined New Mexico home-based child care provider perspectives (n = 75) on barriers to and facilitators of Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participation. Two thirds of the sample were Spanish speakers. Providers reported that CACFP reimbursement does not cover actual food costs and the time-and-effort costs of obtaining qualifying foods and completing required documentation. They noted that additional reimbursed meals are needed for children in care for extended hours and that linguistically competent CACFP sponsor staff facilitated their participation. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(S3):S215-S219. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307402).

Home visiting in home-based child care: Staff and provider experiences

States and localities face challenges around how to deliver support to home-based child care (HBCC) providers in meaningful ways that improve quality for children and families and meet the needs of providers. While most support organizations deliver services to HBCC providers through home visits, there is limited research on how these visits are implemented. HBCC networks are a common delivery mechanism for support that are often funded through child care licensing, child care subsidy, and quality rating and improvement systems which may dictate the content and purpose of services delivered. This study sought to understand 1) the experiences of network staff who deliver home visits; 2) the range of home visiting implementation practices across HBCC networks; and 3) variation in home visiting implementation practices across networks with different policy roles. We surveyed 106 HBCC network staff who conducted home visits and 144 HBCC providers who received home visits from 35 HBCC networks across 19 states. The survey included closed-ended questions designed to examine aspects and dimensions of home visiting implementation including logistics, content, and relationship-based approaches to support from both staff and provider perspectives. We describe these implementation drivers for the entire sample and use Chi-square tests and two-sample t-tests to examine differences by the network’s policy role (enforcement vs. support). Findings suggest that HBCC network staff are committed to their work despite low wages and lack of benefits. Staff and providers report respectful positive relationships with each other during home visits. While home visiting is a widely used approach to supporting HBCC providers, the policy role of HBCC networks may be a factor in how networks implement home visits. Compared to network staff responsible for monitoring compliance to regulations, network staff whose role was around supporting providers reported taking a more provider-focused, responsive approach to service delivery and focused visits on working with children. Providers at HBCC networks that were focused on compliance and enforcement reported less comfort with visits and visits focused more on regulatory and administrative tasks. The results of this study suggest that ECE systems seeking to improve quality in HBCC should consider the role of relationship-based approaches to engaging and supporting HBCC providers.

Quality in home-based childcare providers: variations in process quality

ABSTRACT Child care quality in general, and caregiver-child interactions in particular, are salient predictors of children’s outcomes. While the importance of process quality is well known, the complex relations between structural quality and process quality are far less researched in family child care, compared to centre based child care. Flanders shows unique features to do so, considering its high enrolment rates of the youngest children and its large share of licenced family child care. We studied the emotional and educational process quality in 200 family child care providers in Flanders, Belgium, using CLASS Infant and CLASS Toddler. The results suggest that educational dimensions are significantly poorer than emotional aspects of caregiver-child interactions. Educational quality appeared the lowest in eating and snack time situations and for toddlers also in free play. While structural features partly explained variations in process quality, it is hardly possible to attribute this to single variables. However, some structural features seem to matter more than others. Pre-service training and supervision mattered, while years of experience did not.

An in-depth examination of family child care providers and their engagement with outside systems using a mixed methods case study approach

This study extends a previously identified and validated typology of home-based child care providers which used providers’ reports of their beliefs and practices related to caregiving to categorize providers rather than regulatory status. We use a mixed methods case study approach to present findings from 12 licensed family child care providers with a specific focus on exploring differences in perspectives and engagement with outside systems among providers in different profiles. Data come from multiple sources, including state administrative data, provider surveys, an observational measure of program quality, interviews, and field notes. Findings highlight some consistent differences in practices, perspective, and engagement with systems between profiles. The case studies presented highlight and extend what is known about family child care providers’ perspectives on quality improvement initiatives and how their perspectives relate to their practices with children and families. Results can inform the development and refinement of quality improvement initiatives offered to home-based child care providers.

Characteristics of home-based child care providers who offer non-standard hour care

The past decade has seen a dramatic growth of non-standard work schedules in the workforce, leading to increasing demand for non-standard hour child care during evenings, nights, and weekends. Low-income families, less-educated parents, and single parents with young children report greater demand for non-standard hour care. Given the prevalence of non-standard hour care and the importance of quality child care, a better understanding of who provides non-standard hour care and how to support this sector is necessary. Home-based child care (HBCC) providers are the largest caregiving group serving children under age 6 during non-standard hours. Through secondary data analysis of the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education on listed home-based child care providers (n = 3476), decision tree analysis was used to predict whether listed HBCC providers offer non-standard hour care. Results indicated those providers who offered non-standard hour care are more likely to receive government subsidies, have lower educational levels, and serve fewer children. The overall accuracy of the decision tree model was 63%. The present study also examined the relationship between providers’ professional engagement and the total number of non-standard working hours (n = 880). The entire model presented a medium effect size. Providers who received home visitors and/or coaching tend to provide more hours of non-standard hour care. To better support HBCC providers in offering non-standard hour care, policy recommendations are presented.

Under the Right Conditions, Center-Based Child Care is an Unlikely COVID-19 Threat to Staff

* Abbreviation: COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 Research on coronavirus transmission from young children to adults in child care settings is largely based on case reports with limited generalizability,1,2 impeding evidence-based assessment of infection risk to child care providers. Gilliam et al3 address these limitations in their multistate study of 57 335 child care providers reporting on exposures, risk mitigation strategies in the workplace, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection from March through May 2020. The team solicited child care providers through contact lists provided by national child care organizations and state child care workforce registries, conducted 3 rounds of surveys, and collected data on key variables including exposure to child care (provided child care during the pandemic compared to program closure) and COVID-19 infection based on a positive test result or hospitalization for COVID-19. Respondents who had exposure to child care services from March through May also reported numerous infection prevention strategies, such as class size reduction, masking, and disinfection practices. This exposure was not associated with odds of COVID-19 infection in both unmatched and propensity score matched analyses that accounted for community … Address correspondence to Heather L. Tubbs-Cooley, PhD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University, 1585 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: tubbscooley.1{at}osu.edu

Identifying a Typology of Unlisted Paid Home-Based Child Care Providers Using Latent Profile Analysis

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study provides a framework for categorizing one subset of the large and heterogeneous group of home-based child care providers, unlisted paid providers. We analyzed data on unlisted paid home-based child care providers (n = 448) from the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education conducted in the United States. We used latent profile analysis to explore how providers align into profiles based on key characteristics related to their caregiving beliefs, self-reported instructional practices, professional engagement, and family supportive practices. Findings reveal that unlisted paid home-based providers align into three profiles: Low Instruction, Low Professional Development (51.3%, n = 230); Higher Instruction (35.2%, n = 158); and Engaged with Outside Systems (13.4%, n = 60). Results suggest that there is variation in providers’ instructional practices, family supports, and professional engagement activities among profiles. Additionally, provider age, enrollment characteristics, and neighborhood urban density predicted profile membership. Practice or Policy: Results provide insight into the design and implementation of quality improvement supports for this subset of home-based child care providers. Using this typology can help match unlisted paid home-based providers with supports that align with their beliefs and practices. It also adds to the limited research base about this subset of providers that can be used to guide practices and policies related to home-based child care.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Early Care and Education Professionals’ Social and Emotional Well-being

ABSTRACT Early care and education (ECE) professionals’ social and emotional well-being has emerged as an area of focus for improving program quality. ECE professionals are experiencing increasing levels of stress and burnout, which is threatening the quality of early childhood education and care. This article introduces the special issue devoted to understanding early childhood professionals’ social and emotional competence and well-being and their relationship to program quality and child outcomes. The purposes of this special issue are to (a) describe the nature of ECE professionals’ social and emotional competence and well-being, (b) understand the factors that contribute to ECE professionals’ social and emotional competence and well-being, (c) understand to what extent and how ECE professionals’ social and emotional competence and well-being impacts classroom quality as well as children’s developmental outcomes, and (d) present evidence-based approaches that support ECE professionals’ social and emotional competence and well-being. For the purposes of this issue, ECE professionals include early childhood educators (e.g., teachers or home-based child care providers), practitioners (e.g., home visitors, mental health consultants, specialists, etc.) and early childhood leaders (e.g., directors, principals, or administrators) who serve children from birth to third grade. In this introductory article we conclude with a discussion of implications of this research for future research, policy, and practice.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Home-Based Child Care Providers Serving Children With Provider-Reported Disabilities

This study examines the prevalence of home-based child care providers who report serving at least one child whom they identify as having a disability. Although many families choose home-based child care, researchers know very little about how many home-based providers care for young children with disabilities. Through secondary analysis of the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) data about home-based child care providers, we examined the prevalence and predictors of serving children with provider-reported disabilities among listed and unlisted home-based providers. Descriptive analyses showed that 21.7% of listed providers, 20.5% of unlisted paid providers, and 10.1% of unlisted unpaid providers reported serving at least one child whom they identified as having a disability. These providers reported relatively low rates of connecting families to outside resources and utilizing outside resources to support them in their work with children. Providers who reported higher enrollment and who received child care subsidies were more likely to report serving a child with a disability.

“I’m a Teacher, Unofficially”: How Home-Based Providers Perceive and Navigate Their Roles

ABSTRACTHome-based child care is a widely used form of child care. However, little is known about the heterogeneous group of caregivers that make up the home-based provider workforce and how they view themselves and their work. This study used role theory as a framework for understanding how providers view and navigate their roles. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 home-based child care providers. Participants identified the roles that made up their role set, how they manage multiple roles, and the challenges they face in balancing these roles. Results suggest that participants can easily identify their multiple roles. The roles participants named aligned into three broad categories: functional, relational, and professional. Participants identified a number of strategies they use to manage roles, including finding an assistant or preparing outside child care hours, but results suggest they may benefit from more assistance in managing their multiple roles.

Classifying Home-Based Child Care Providers: Validating a Typology of Providers’ Beliefs and Self-Reported Practices

Although home-based child care is a widely-used form of non-parental child care, relatively little is known about the home-based provider workforce and their beliefs and practices related to children and families. This study validates a previously identified typology of listed home-based child care providers (Hooper and Hallam, Early Child Res Q 47:194–205, 2019). The typology categorizes providers based on their beliefs and self-reported practices, rather than by licensing status or other structural characteristics. The current study uses exploratory and confirmatory latent profile analysis (LPA) to categorize a statewide sample of home-based child care providers (n = 234). Results of the confirmatory LPA suggest that the original typology identified in previous analysis of a nationally representative sample—Educationally Focused, Educationally Aware, and Caregiver profiles—fit the data well. However, an additional profile of Highly Engaged providers emerged in the exploratory analysis. Using the results of the profile analyses, I discuss implications for designing and implementing quality improvement supports for home-based child care providers to support them in providing high-quality child care.

Identifying profiles of listed home-based child care providers based on their beliefs and self-reported practices

This study seeks to broaden the knowledge base of the diverse home-based child care provider workforce in the United States. Home-based child care is a crucial part of the child care landscape with approximately seven million children from birth to five receiving care in home-based settings. Through secondary analysis of the National Survey of Early Care and Education data on listed home-based providers (n = 3493), latent profile analysis was used to explore how providers grouped into profiles based on key characteristics related to their caregiving beliefs and their self-reported instructional practices, professional engagement, and family supportive practices. Findings reveal providers aligned into three profiles: Educationally Focused (72.4%), Educationally Aware (15.7%), and Caregiver (11.8%). Frequency of implementing planned educational activities emerged as a particularly salient distinction among the three groups. Results suggest that although listed home-based providers appear somewhat homogeneous in their demographic characteristics, they vary in their instructional practices with children and their own professional engagement. Therefore, they may benefit from a tailored approach to quality improvement that attends to these differences.

Predictors of Instructional Practices Among a Nationally Representative Sample of Home-Based Child Care Providers

Home-based child care is a widely-used form of child care. However, given its prevalence, there is little research examining the providers’ instructional practices and how these may vary by provider characteristics. The goal of this study is to describe variation in instructional practices among home-based child care providers and to examine predictors of instructional practices, including provider, program, and community characteristics. This study examines the instructional practices of listed and unlisted paid home-based child care providers using data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education through descriptive analyses and hierarchical multiple regression. Descriptive analyses suggest that providers across types report implementing learning activities, although this is more prevalent among listed providers. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression reveal that recent professional engagement predicts a higher frequency of planned learning activities for listed and unlisted paid providers, although the significant predictors are different for the two groups of providers. Home-based child care providers vary by provider type in the frequency of their instructional practices. Increasing access to professional development and social support opportunities may be an important strategy for supporting their implementation of educational activities with the children they serve. Additionally, different supports may be beneficial for listed and unlisted paid providers.

Home Based Child-Care Providers are Not Currently meeting the 2017 Child and Adult Care Food Program Nutrition Standards

Home Based Child-Care Providers are Not Currently meeting the 2017 Child and Adult Care Food Program Nutrition Standards

Providing Opportunities to Learn in Home-Based Child Care Settings: Observations of Learning Contexts and Behavior

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: This observation study investigated the prevalence and correlates of learning contexts provided to preschool-age children in 133 registered child care homes in below-average-income neighborhoods in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. On average, 30% of the observed proportion of time was spent in structured teacher-led activities, 51% in free-choice activities, 10% in routine activities, 1% in watching video/TV, and 7% in transition. Home-based child care providers gave significantly more positive recognition during structured teacher-led activities, and children engaged in more prosocial behavior during free-choice time. Directives and noncompliance occurred more often during transitions. A higher child-to-caregiver ratio was associated with more time spent in free-choice time, and caregiver experience and education were not associated with the time spent in specific learning contexts. Practice or Policy: Similar to preschool and center-based child care, current practice in home-based child care is to offer a mix of structured teacher-led and free-choice activities. To facilitate young children’s skill development within these learning activities typically offered, it is necessary to increase research and provide empirically based professional development opportunities relevant to home-based child care settings. Attention to home-based child care will likely reach many young children and be particularly beneficial for those in low-income households.

Differences and Agreement in Perception of Child Picky Eating Among Center- and Home-Based Childcare Providers and Parents and Its Impact on Utilized Mealtime Strategies.

Picky eating is a problematic eating behavior caregivers may encounter with children under their care. A picky eater (PE) is typically characterized as consuming a narrow range of food, as well as rejecting several food items. Much of the literature regarding PEs involves parents, although use of nonparental childcare arrangements in the United States has increased in the past several decades. Although data on parental mealtime strategies exist, little is known about how parent and childcare provider pickiness perceptions differ between types of childcare, such as center-based childcare (CBCC) and home-based childcare (HBCC), or how these perceptions influence the mealtime strategies utilized. The objectives of this study were to (1) compare perceptions of child pickiness between parents and childcare providers, (2) compare percent agreement in pickiness perception between the dyads of CBCC parents and providers and HBCC parents and providers, and (3) identify mealtime strategy utilization based on pickiness perception. A total of 52 child, parent, and childcare provider triads participated in the study and completed the Mealtime Assessment Survey and the Parent/Teacher Mealtime Strategy Survey regarding the same child. Results showed that parents are 1.4 times more likely than childcare providers to perceive a child as being picky, HBCC parents and providers are 1.4 times more likely to perceive a child as being picky than CBCC parents and providers, CBCC parents and providers disagree more in their perception of child pickiness than HBCC parents and providers (41% vs 26%), and finally, perception of child pickiness has a greater influence on mealtime strategies utilized by parents. These results can be used to focus intervention efforts aimed at improving child eating habits across the home and childcare location.

Ecomapping as a Research Tool for Informal Child Care

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: Many young children spend crucial developmental years in informal, home-based child care (HBCC) settings, but parents and others share concerns about HBCC quality. We applied the ecomap method in a descriptive study of racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse informal caregivers and parents to capture their informal caregiving arrangements, social networks, and social supports. For the parents in our study, informal child care was a flexible, affordable, and readily accessible child care option. For caregivers, informal care provided opportunities to help family and friends and to earn extra income. Social networks were characterized largely by relationships with family and friends, and social supports tended to be strong and mutually beneficial. Practice or Policy: We found that ecomapping is an engaging and flexible method of capturing and understanding complex child care arrangements and social networks in HBCC settings. As a research tool, ecomapping can help improve the quality of care in informal settings by identifying and meeting the needs of parents and HBCC providers and informing program development and delivery strategies.

The Impact of Home-Based Child Care Provider Unionization on the Cost, Type, and Availability of Subsidized Child Care in Illinois

In February 2005, Illinois became the first U.S. state to grant home-based child care providers (HBCPs) the right to form a labor union in order to bargain collectively with the state government. This policy inspired similar efforts across the country and represents a potentially important direction for child care policy. To date, the implications of labor unions for the cost, type, and availability of subsidized child care have not been evaluated empirically. In this study, we examine the impact of granting Illinois HBCPs the right to form a labor union on (a) the type of child care (licensed vs. license-exempt/home-based vs. center-based) used by subsidy-receiving Illinois infants and toddlers; (b) the per-child cost of subsidized child care for infants and toddlers; and (c) the percentage of Illinois infants and toddlers who use child care subsidies. To conduct these analyses, we combine data from the Current Population Survey with Child Care and Development Fund administrative records on U.S. infants and toddlers whose families received child care subsidies during the period from 2002 to 2008. We use both a traditional difference-in-differences as well as a comparative case study with a “synthetic” control group approach. The synthetic control group approach improves on traditional comparative case studies by providing a transparent, empirical approach for constructing the counterfactual, documenting comparison units’ contribution to the synthetically created control group and detailing the degree to which the synthetic control group is, or is not, similar to the treated unit on preintervention measures of the outcome as well as on other selected characteristics. We find that subsidy-receiving Illinois infants and toddlers spent an average of between 6.4 and 7 percentage points more hours in licensed care settings, as compared to license-exempt settings, in the three years following child care unionization. We also find that between 0.7 and 1.1 percentage points fewer Illinois infants and toddlers used child care subsidies following unionization.

Childcare providers’ mental health: a systematic review of its prevalence, determinants and relationship to care quality

Childcare providers’ mental health is important for their well-being and its potential impact on turnover and care quality. A systematic review of research (1980–2012) was conducted to investigate the quality and findings of studies on the mental health of centre- and home-based childcare providers. Eighteen articles were identified that examined depression, stress, negative moods or positive mental health. There were risks of bias within most studies (15/18). Qualitative research indicated high provider stress, yet mean scores of perceived stress and depression were low and mental well-being was high. Poor mental health was linked with poor working conditions. Its relationship with care quality was inconclusive; however, higher quality care was consistently related to higher educator mental well-being. This systematic review revealed a limited evidence base largely focused on mental health problems and suggests that sector engagement is essential to advance the mental health of childcare providers.

Associations of caregiver stress with working conditions, caregiving practices, and child behaviour in home-based child care

Home-based child caregivers face unique stressors related to the nature of their work. One hundred and fifty-five home-based child care providers in Oregon, USA, participated in this cross-sectional correlational study. We investigated associations between indicators of caregiver stress and child care working conditions, the quality of caregiver practices, frequency of child behaviour challenges, and caregivers' tolerance for those behaviours. Levels of stress in this sample were moderate to low. Significant associations were found between greater caregiver stress with higher child–caregiver ratio, working in isolation, less frequently observed caregiver positive attention, more caregiver-reported child problem behaviours and lower tolerance for problem behaviours. A multiple regression analysis with these variables significantly contributed to 23% of the variance of caregiver stress. Number of hours worked, observed caregiver negative attention, and responsiveness to children were not associated with caregiver stress. Implications of these findings and the need for future studies are discussed.