Childcare

Paper Summary:

This paper presents statistics showing the high costs of childcare, especially as it affects single-parent families. It argues that the need for childcare to be affordable and high-quality. It also examines the plight of impoverished women, who often have to use informal childcare arrangements in order to make ends meet. The paper calls for a balance between affordability of daycare and quality of daycare to be achieved.

From the Paper:

"Over the past two decades, perhaps the most marked change in family structure has been the increase in single-parent families (Kirby). In 1990, the number of single-parent families with children under the age of 18 was 9.7 million, compared to 3.8 million in 1970 (Kirby). Moreover, children today are more likely to live in a singe-parent family for reasons other than the death of a parent for the first time in history (Kirby). Approximately 40 percent of children under the age of 18 will experience parental separation or divorce, and roughly one in four children are born to an unmarried mother (Kirby). Furthermore, 90 percent of single-parent families are headed by females, while single mothers with dependent children have the highest rate of poverty across all demographic groups (Kirby). Some 60 percent of American children living in mother-only families are impoverished, compared with only 11 percent of two-parent families, with the rate even higher among African American single-parent families, in which two out of three children are poor (Kirby). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Barrow, Lisa. "Child care costs and the return-to-work decisions of new mothers." Economic Perspectives. December 22 1999. Retrieved February 23 2006 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
• Culkin, Mary. "Cost and quality in child care." Pediatrics. December 01 1994. Retrieved February 23 2006 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
• Kimmel, Jean. "The effect of child care costs on the employment and welfare recipiency of single mothers." Southern Economic Journal. January 01 2003. Retrieved February 23 2006 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.
• Kirby, Jacqueline. "Single-parent Families in Poverty." The Ohio State University. Retrieved February 23 2006 from:http://www.hec.ohio-state.edu/famlife/bulletin/volume.1/bullart1.htm
• Marvin, John. "Dollars and sense of backup child care: When is it the right choice?" Employee Benefit News. April 15 2005. Retrieved February 23 2006 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

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• Essay # 60906 : "The Economics of Childcare"

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