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Family Child Care in the United States |
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National Center for Children in Poverty: At some point during their first five years, nearly one-quarter of all children spend about 30 hours per week in family child care (FCC). While there is no universally recognized definition, FCC is typically characterized as nonparental, paid care for nonrelative children that generally takes place in the provider's home and is regulated by the state. This Child Care & Early Education Research Connections Review of Research package, which includes a Literature Review, a Research Brief, and a Table of Methods and Findings, synthesizes the current research on family child care providers, parental use of family child care, and quality of this type of care. Families using home-based care (both regulated and unregulated) are more likely to prefer this care for infants and toddlers, but prefer preschools and centers for older children. Single, female-headed households tend to prefer family child care for their children. Family child care providers often care for mixed-age groups, siblings, and their own children along with other children. Family child care providers vary widely in race, age, educational attainment, and socioeconomic status. The majority of these providers are female and parents themselves, and about one-third care for their own children in addition to unrelated children. Family child care providers tend to cite enjoyment of working with children and earning extra income while staying at home with their own children as their motivation for providing care. Most observational studies to date suggest that much of family child care is of "adequate" quality, although researchers are still grappling with the best way to measure quality in home-based settings.
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