Child care tradeoffs among Massachusetts mothers

Abstract

In the U.S., licensed child care is funded through a mostly private market, constraining the supply of accessible high-quality care. Child care providers are limited in their ability to offer high-quality early child care that is easily accessible by parents across the economic spectrum. In a mostly private market, there is variation in options for early child care at the community- and provider-levels. Combine this with variable parental needs and preferences and it is easy to see how alignment is not always achievable (Weber, 2011). Constraints on the child care supply make fixing one or more aspects of child care possible only at the detriment of another. This is referred to as the child care trilemma (Morgan, 1986). This results in unequal and inequitable access to care across income levels. Lower-income families in particular face constraints in securing care that is strong on multiple care dimensions of affordability, quality, and availability when, where, and for whom they need it. We know that some parents confront forced choices or tradeoffs among aspects of care. This study aimed to understand the tradeoffs parents make in selecting the best care arrangements for their family. Between October 2019 and January 2020, we interviewed 67 mothers in Massachusetts whose child(ren) had not yet started kindergarten. We worked to understand the ways in which tradeoffs occurred and the implications of those tradeoffs by asking about mothers’ initial preferences and needs when first considering child care options relative to the choices they made. We found that 1) tradeoffs occurred along the multiple dimensions of care, 2) mothers used strategies to mitigate the consequences of tradeoffs, 3) tradeoffs varied in level of severity, 4) the more accessible the care, the less severe the tradeoff; and 5) tradeoffs varied in meaningful ways. These findings underscore the utility in applying a tradeoffs lens to assessing child care policy and practice in furtherance of equitable solutions.