CHILD-CARE PREFERENCES AND CHOICES - ARE AFDC RECIPIENTS UNIQUE

As U.S. welfare policy has begun to emphasize employment and training, child care for low-income families has achieved new prominence on policy and research agendas. Some policy analysts have argued that poor parents are different from their more affluent counterparts in their need and preference for using market child care services. However, when recipients in work and education programs of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) were asked about the care they would choose for their children, their preferences closely resembled those of working parents in general. Although nearly half of welfare recipients hoped to use some form of market child care in the future, few had used such care in the past. When preferences, economic factors, and family characteristics were analyzed jointly using logistic regression, the probability that women used any formal child care was most significantly related to women's need for care and access to resources for formal or informal care. As new child care subsidies for families on AFDC increase their child care opportunities, low-income women will seek a variety of market and nonmarket arrangements. Child care policies are needed that promote parental choice and ensure that parents have access to high-quality care.