Parental decision making about child care

In an effort to address how to best assess the importance of various characteristics of child care to parents, 355 employed mothers of children under 6 years of age completed a questionnaire exploring the importance of child care characteristics to their choice of arrangement, through ratings, rankings, and conjoint analysis. Results indicate that when rated, warmth of caregivers, educational level of caregivers, and utilization of a play- based curriculum emerge as the most important factors for mothers in this sample. When rank ordered, warmth, a play- based curriculum, and the educational level of caregivers emerge as the first-, second-, and third- most important factors. When examined using conjoint analysis of child care scenarios, warmth, flexibility of hours of operation, and education level of caregivers emerge as the most influential variables in the child care decision. Demographic differences in parental child care preferences and potential future uses for conjoint analysis are identified.