Self-care Arrangements Research Articles

Too Old for Child Care? Too Young for Self-care?

The transition to middle school when children are 10 or 11 can be difficult for employed-parent families; often they must fashion new after-school arrangements in a context of limited options and conflicting views about appropriate care. Based on interviews in a California city with 22 preteens and 26 of their working-class through upper-middle-class parents, this article examines how families negotiated those arrangements. The transition to middle school entailed an abrupt drop-off in school-based care resources and school-to-parent communication and emboldened most of the preteens to press for more autonomy. Some families slipped into self-care arrangements, usually despite parents' misgivings; others pieced together complicated plans for after-school coverage. The author analyzes structural and cultural factors that influenced family negotiations and discusses how middle schools and their communities can be more responsive to the needs of employed-parent families.

Determinants of self-care arrangements among school-age children

This study investigates determinants of self-care arrangements among school-aged children. The study finds that mothers'hours of work increase the likelihood of self-care arrangements. However, accompanying results suggest that maternal work and use of self-care does not imply school children are unsupervised. Effects of kin, older siblings, the cost of care and use of only maternal care previously suggest that self-care is chosen only when special conditions are satisfied. When those stipulations are meet, self-care has a higher likelihood of use.

A typology of families with children in self-care: Implications for school-age child care programming

An increasing number of schools and youth service organizations are developing school-age child care programs to serve children who wound otherwise be left in self-care. The purpose of this study was to identify the differences between families using a self-care arrangement and the implications of these differences for school-age child care program development. A sample of 164 families with school-age children in self-care (or the care of another school-age sibling), was drawn from a Southern metropolitan school system. Parents were surveyed about their self-care arrangement, the types of school-age child care services they needed, and barriers to having those needs met. Using discriminant analysis, the 164 families were reclassified into three groups. The resulting family profiles are examined in relation to school-age child care program development.

Long-term effects of self-supervised and adult-supervised child care arrangements on personality traits, emotional adjustment, and cognitive development

This study investigated long-term effects of being in a “latchkey” or self-supervised child care situation compared with being in an adult-supervised arrangement. Data on former child care arrangements and several measures of cognitive development, emotional adjustment, and the personality traits of dominance, responsibility, and achievement via independence were collected from 248 college students. Students who reported having been in adult care did not differ from students who regularly cared for themselves during out-of-school hours on any of the dependent measures, which concurs with previous findings on short-term effects of the self-care arrangement. Age at which the self-care situation was initiated, and gender, individually and collectively, failed to predict outcome on any dependent measure. These results suggest that children are resilient to short-term separation from their parents and may be able to structure their time constructively during out-of-school hours.

Children in Self‐Care Arrangements

Children in Self‐Care Arrangements

Social Relationships as Determinants of Parental Satisfaction With Self-Care Arrangements for Children

Many school-age children spend time in self-care (latchkey) arrangements while their parents are away from home. Analyses of data collected through a magazine-distributed questionnaire identified several variables that contribute to mothers' satisfaction with self-care arrangements. These variables can be subsumed under two general categories: (a) child's age and (b) the mother's and child's separate social networks. We discuss the implications for practitioners and policymakers.

Introduction to the Special Section: Children on Their Own

We provide a brief introduction to this special section entitled "Children on Their Own." This overview to the research on children in self-care examines the influences of society, schools and other institutions, families, and the children themselves on the outcome of self-care arrangements. We stress the need for additional research and for high-quality child care across societal, community, and family systems.

Child's Age and Mother's Employment in Relation to Greater Use of Self-Care Arrangements for Children

In recent years there has been a growing interest in self-care (latchkey) arrangements, but virtually no research has been done on time in self-care. We investigated factors associated with the amount of time children spend in self-care. Using a magazinedistributed questionnaire, we obtained responses from 1,194 mothers who had children under age 14 in self-care to some extent. Child's age and mother's hours per week of paid employment were significantly related to greater use of self-care arrangements. Mother's frequency of attendance at religious services was related to lesser use of self-care. Mother's marital status showed a less clear relationship to self-care use.

When School-Age Children Care for Themselves: Issues for Family Life Educators and Parents

Recent media reports have suggested that there is widespread concern about the well-being of children who are home alone during part of the day. This essay reviews several of the major questions parents, researchers, and family life educators may have about self-care. A brief review of five related research studies is also included. The following topics are covered: defining the self-care arrangement, the number of children in self-care, impact of self-care for children's development, and guidance for parents and children.

Effects of Child-Care Programs on Women's Work Effort

In recent years, Congress has considered a variety of work-subsidy programs designed to encourage work among welfare recipients. Many of these programs would subsidize individuals only if they work some minimum number of hours. Commonly used techniques cannot give direct answers to relevant policy questions since a tied offer is involved, and hence the offer cannot be treated as a simple wage change. The essence of the problem involves utility comparisons between two or more discrete alternatives. Such comparisons inherently require information about consumer preferences in a way not easily obtained from ordinary labor-supply functions. To make such comparisons, I present a method for directly estimating consumer indifference surfaces between money income and nonmarket time. Once these surfaces are determined, they can be used to compare a variety of alternative programs to investigate whether or not there is scope for Pareto-optimal redistribution of income transfers and time, improving the general level of welfare of the community at large without reducing the welfare of individuals receiving income transfers. Knowledge of these indifference surfaces allows us to estimate reservation wages to estimate the value of nonworking-women's time (Gronau 1973), laborforce participation functions, hours-of-work functions, and welfare losses due to income tax programs (Harberger 1964). I demonstrate that direct estimation of indifference surfaces allows us, at least in principle, to relax