In the U.S., licensed child care is funded through a mostly private market, constraining the supply of accessible high-quality care. Child care providers are limited in their ability to offer high-quality early child care that is easily accessible by parents across the economic spectrum. In a mostly private market, there is variation in options for early child care at the community- and provider-levels. Combine this with variable parental needs and preferences and it is easy to see how alignment is not always achievable (Weber, 2011). Constraints on the child care supply make fixing one or more aspects of child care possible only at the detriment of another. This is referred to as the child care trilemma (Morgan, 1986). This results in unequal and inequitable access to care across income levels. Lower-income families in particular face constraints in securing care that is strong on multiple care dimensions of affordability, quality, and availability when, where, and for whom they need it. We know that some parents confront forced choices or tradeoffs among aspects of care. This study aimed to understand the tradeoffs parents make in selecting the best care arrangements for their family. Between October 2019 and January 2020, we interviewed 67 mothers in Massachusetts whose child(ren) had not yet started kindergarten. We worked to understand the ways in which tradeoffs occurred and the implications of those tradeoffs by asking about mothers’ initial preferences and needs when first considering child care options relative to the choices they made. We found that 1) tradeoffs occurred along the multiple dimensions of care, 2) mothers used strategies to mitigate the consequences of tradeoffs, 3) tradeoffs varied in level of severity, 4) the more accessible the care, the less severe the tradeoff; and 5) tradeoffs varied in meaningful ways. These findings underscore the utility in applying a tradeoffs lens to assessing child care policy and practice in furtherance of equitable solutions.

中文翻译：

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马萨诸塞州母亲之间育儿权衡


在美国，有执照的托儿服务主要通过私人市场提供资金，这限制了可获得的高质量托儿服务的供应。托儿服务提供者在提供高质量的幼儿保育方面能力有限，而这些托儿服务是所有经济阶层的父母都可以轻松获得的。在一个以私人为主的市场中，社区和提供者层面的早期托儿服务选择各不相同。将此与不同的父母需求和偏好相结合，很容易看出对齐并不总是可以实现的（Weber，2011）。对托儿服务供应的限制使得解决托儿服务的一个或多个方面只能以损害另一个方面为代价。这被称为托儿三难困境（Morgan， 1986）。这导致不同收入水平的人获得护理的机会不平等和不公平。低收入家庭在获得护理方面尤其面临制约，这些护理在可负担性、质量和可用性等多个护理维度上都很强大，他们需要的时间、地点和对象。我们知道，一些父母面临着在护理方面做出被迫的选择或权衡。本研究旨在了解父母在为家庭选择最佳护理安排时所做的权衡。在 2019 年 10 月至 2020 年 1 月期间，我们采访了马萨诸塞州的 67 位母亲，她们的孩子（任）尚未开始上幼儿园。我们努力了解权衡发生的方式以及这些权衡的影响，方法是在首次考虑与她们所做的选择相关的托儿选择时询问母亲的初始偏好和需求。 我们发现 1） 权衡发生在护理的多个维度上，2） 母亲使用策略来减轻权衡的后果，3） 权衡的严重程度不同，4） 护理越容易获得，权衡就越不严重;5） 权衡取舍以有意义的方式变化。这些发现强调了应用权衡视角来评估儿童保育政策和实践在促进公平解决方案方面的效用。