Children in Low-Income Families Are Less Likely to Be in Center-Based Child Care

No. 16 in Series, "Snapshots of America's Families III"

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The child care arrangements of children younger than 5 with working mothers vary by income.¹ Children in higher-income families—particularly 3- and 4-year olds—are more likely to be placed in center-based arrangements while low-income children are more likely to be in the care of relatives. These differences may have implications for the school-readiness of low-income children.

This Snapshot uses the 2002 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) to examine differences in the primary child care arrangements of low- and higher-income children with working mothers. We define low-income families as those with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty thresholds, while higher-income families are those with incomes at or above that level. The primary child care arrangement is the one in which the child spent the most hours while the child's mother worked. To be counted as a child care arrangement, the arrangement had to be used regularly, defined as at least once a week during the past month. Child care arrangements include center-based child care (child care center, Head Start, nursery school, preschool, prekindergarten, and before- or after-school programs); family child care (care by a nonrelative in the provider's home); baby-sitter or nanny care (care by a nonrelative inside the child's home); relative care (care by a relative in either the child's or the provider's home); and parent/other care (those children whose mothers did not report the use of any regular child care arrangement while they worked).²

Notes from this section

1 Data on child care arrangements were obtained by conducting interviews with the adult most knowledgeable about the child. Since this person was most often the mother (71.5 percent), the term "mother" is used here to refer to this respondent.

2 The survey did not ask questions about parental care, which can include care provided by the other parent or care by the mother while she worked. Children whose mothers did not report them to be in a regular child care arrangement are assumed to be in parent/other care.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

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