National Survey Explores the Perceptions of Search Process for Child Care

By Ivelisse Martinez-Beck, Ph.D., Senior Social Science Research Analyst and Child Care Research Team Leader, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation

How do parents perceive childcare options available to them? Data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education Household Survey suggests that parents’ perceptions, as well as the search process for non-parental care, vary by household income, child’s age and household race/ethnicity.

Our recent brief and fact sheet on the survey explores this data and suggests that the data may also shed light on ways to target early care and education programs and policies to serve families with young children better.

Findings show that:

• Households with lower and higher incomes were more likely to rate center-based care as excellent or good than those households with incomes in the middle.
• Households with children from birth to 36 month old were less likely to rate center-based care as excellent or good than those with children 36 to 60 months old.
• Black households tend to rank center-based arrangements slightly higher on some characteristics versus other racial/ethnic groups.

When it comes to the search process for non-parental care, similar factors — child’s age and household income — appear to influence decision-making. Reasons for care searches vary by the child’s age. Households researching more than one provider consider fees more than other provider characteristics.

The data provided by the survey represents the first national look at these questions, presenting information from 4,340 households. Visit the survey’s project page for more of our latest findings and our previous work.