Early Care and Education: Work Support for Families and Developmental Opportunity for Young Children. Occasional Paper. Assessing the New Federalism: An Urban Institute Program To Assess Changing Social Policies.

This paper uses the 1997 National Survey of America's Families to examine child care patterns for young children in the United States. The paper examines three general features of children's early care and education participation: (1) primary care arrangements, classified as center-based care, family child care, relative care, nanny or babysitter, and parent-only; (2) number of hours in nonparental care; and (3) number of nonparental arrangements children participate in on a regular basis each week, and the percentage of children using two or more such arrangements. Major findings indicate that more than two-thirds of children who are under age 5 and not in school experience nonparental care. Primary care providers shift from parents and relatives to center-based care as children get older. The time spent in nonparental care increases with child's age. Children are more likely to be in two or more nonparental arrangements as they near school entry. Income and parental employment are interrelated factors associated with patterns of early care and education. Tables with basic demographic information about the children and responding parents in the national survey sample are appended. (Contains 12 references.) (KB)