Families living in homeless shelters with young children (birth-36 months) face a variety of complex challenges which make it difficult to locate and maintain child care enrollment. Although the inequitable access to child care for families in shelter has been documented, little is known about the factors that predict child care usage among families experiencing homelessness. This investigation utilized interviews of 150 parents with children ages birth-36 months residing in nine different homeless shelters to identify: how many families used center-based care, how many families relied only on parental care, and what other types of nonparental child care arrangements families utilized. Next, we investigated whether usage of center-based child care was associated with child and family characteristics of race/ethnicity, unemployment, time spent in shelter, reasons for seeking shelter, and parent depression symptoms. Data for this study came from three data collection efforts considering risk and resilience factors among families with infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness. Parents in this study reported using nonparental child care at lower rates than the general population. Employed parents were more likely to use center-based child care, and families who reported their child's race/ethnicity as Black or African American were less likely to report using center-based child care. Findings have implications for policy considerations necessary to support the use of center-based child care among families living in homeless shelters.

中文翻译：

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有小孩住在无家可归者收容所的家庭的托儿服务使用情况


生活在有幼儿（出生 - 36 个月）的无家可归者收容所的家庭面临着各种复杂的挑战，这使得难以找到和维持托儿所的入学率。尽管已经记录了庇护所家庭获得托儿服务的不公平，但对预测无家可归家庭使用托儿服务的因素知之甚少。这项调查采访了 150 名居住在 9 个不同无家可归者收容所的出生至 36 个月儿童的父母，以确定：有多少家庭使用基于中心的照顾，有多少家庭仅依赖父母照顾，以及家庭使用哪些其他类型的非父母托儿安排。接下来，我们调查了以中心为基础的托儿服务的使用是否与种族/民族、失业、在庇护所度过的时间、寻找庇护所的原因和父母抑郁症状等儿童和家庭特征有关。本研究的数据来自三项数据收集工作，考虑了无家可归的婴幼儿家庭的风险和复原力因素。这项研究中的父母报告说，使用非父母托儿服务的比例低于一般人群。在职父母更有可能使用基于中心的托儿服务，而报告孩子的种族/族裔是黑人或非裔美国人的家庭不太可能报告使用基于中心的托儿服务。研究结果对支持生活在无家可归者收容所的家庭使用以中心为基础的托儿服务所需的政策考虑具有启示意义。