July 9, 2002

Working Parents and Primary Child Care

A recent survey by the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF), showed that nearly 20.5 million children who have working parents regularly spend time in child care each week.

The NSAF gathered information about a variety of child care arrangements, including care centers, before-and-after school care, family child care providers, relatives, and baby-sitters or nannies.

"Seventy-three percent of children under the age of five with employed parents are in an arrangement other than care by a parent, " says Debra Pankow, North Dakota State University family economics specialist. "These arrangements include child care centers, family care providers, baby-sitters, and relatives."

Findings showed that some of the primary arrangements used for preschoolers were centered-based care and care by relatives.

• 28 percent of preschool children with employed parents were in center-based care
• 27 percent of preschool children were cared primarily by relatives
• 14 percent were in family child care homes
• 4 percent were cared by nannies or baby-sitters
• 27 percent were in parent care

The survey showed that 80 percent of children over the age of 5 with an employed primary care giver were in some form of child care other than school. Arrangements included child-care centers, before-and-after-school programs, family child care providers, baby-sitters, and relatives.

"Compared to preschool children, a larger proportion of 5-year old’s were placed more in child-care based programs," Pankow says.

• 40 percent were in center-based care
• 8 percent were in before-and-after-school programs
• 19 percent were cared by relatives
• family and child care and nannies or baby-sitters were comparable to preschoolers

As children grow older and reach school-age, fewer are in child care arrangements outside of school hours.

• 49 percent of children age six through twelve with an employed care giver were in some type of arrangement.
• 23 percent are cared by relatives.
• 15 percent attended before-and-after-school programs
• 7 percent were in child care settings.
• 10 percent of school-age children care for themselves or spend time alone with siblings younger than age 13 while their parents are employed.
• 41 percent of school-age children were estimated to be in parent/other care only.

The use of centered based care has declined for preschool-age children as the use of relatives and parent/other care increased. Among school-age children, the use of relatives increased as self-care declined. The survey on child care arrangements were conducted in two year increments. The analysis of NSAF data also showed the types of families affected by shifts in child care arrangements can vary substantially.