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Author: Cook, Judith A.
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Cook, Judith A.
Grey, Dennis
Child Care Arrangements Among Adolescent and Young Adult Parents: Findings from a National Survey
Presented: San Antonio, TX, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1984
Cohort(s): NLSY79, Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Age at First Birth; Child Care; Family Influences; Teenagers

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The purposes of this study are to identify the characteristics related to use of a particular type of caretaker (in this case a relative or nonrelative) in families with preschool children. This involves the use of a model to explain the child care choices of employed mothers of preschoolers in the years 1967 and 1971 by Richard Shortlidge, and applying this model to data from the 1978 NLS of Young Women and the 1982 NLSY. This analysis identifies age, race, sex, family composition, and region of residence as important variables. The model first demonstrates that characteristics of family composition are major influences on the nature of child care arrangements. Some household characteristics, such as the presence of a spouse or an adult, represent a family's child care resources, while others, such as the presence of both an infant and preschooler, signify additional child care responsibilities. A second finding was that the model works better to explain the child care cho ices of females than it does for males, more likely because of the strong emphasis on women's role as child caretaker in American society. Third, differences exist in predicting the child care choices of females by age at first birth. Female teenagers at birth are more constrained in their child care choices by the presence of a parent to care for the child, their region of residence and city size, and the need to arrange child care for both an infant and preschoolers.
Bibliography Citation
Cook, Judith A. and Dennis Grey. "Child Care Arrangements Among Adolescent and Young Adult Parents: Findings from a National Survey." Presented: San Antonio, TX, American Sociological Association Annual Meetings, 1984.