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TEMPLE EXPERTS ARE RESEARCHING THE UNDERUSE OF CHILD CARE SUBSIDIES IN PENNSYLVANIA
If government subsidies are available for child care, then why aren't low-income families using them? This is one of the questions researchers at Temple University are hoping to answer.
In Philadelphia, reports show that families eligible for government child care subsidies are turning down cash benefits in large numbers, according to Temple urban studies and geography professor Anne Shlay, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Philadelphia study, Barriers to Child Care Subsidies: The Influence of Family Characteristics on Subsidy Utilization.
"We understand very little about why families do not use subsidies and how families of different types respond to similar or different policies," says Shlay. "We need to understand how families perceive the child care system and the role that family characteristics may play in fostering particular patterns of decision-making."
The Temple project was launched last October with a $299,358 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"There are so many different reasons why families may not use the subsidy system," says Shlay, director of Temple's Center for Public Policy at Temple, one of 10 universities and organizations awarded grants for child care research. Working with Shlay on the three-year study are researchers Marsha Weinraub, a Laura Carnell psychology professor at Temple, and Elizabeth Jaeger, a psychology professor at Saint Joseph's University.
"Pennsylvania requires that parents applying for a child care subsidy have a formal child support decree in place. This is a major roadblock for some mothers who are not willing to take the fathers of their children to court or reveal their relationship with them," she says. "The state also requires that mothers work at least 25 hours a week and that they provide proof of income, with verification of the source of income every six months.
"These are just some of the barriers. Some people don't perceive government as a place they're going to turn to for money for child care subsidies."
Families in Pennsylvania are not alone in their rejection of government child care subsidies. It's happening in other areas of the country, including California, Connecticut and Florida, says Shlay, noting that rejection of the subsidy system is high among single mothers who are in educational and training programs and low-paying jobs.
"The utilization rate is very low. It is under 50 percent in every locality in the country. Nowhere does it go above 50 percent and, in most places, it's below 30 percent," Shlay points out. "These are very poor people. The child care subsidy is not a huge amount of money, in absolute terms, but it is a huge percentage of these families' income.
"The fact that they are not going after these subsidies means that they are rejecting a tremendous amount of support."
One of the first of its kind in the country, the project includes three studies. The first study uses focus groups and survey research. Some 500 income-eligible African American and white families in Philadelphia will be surveyed.
The second study uses the factorial survey technique created by Shlay to determine the child care preferences of low-income families. For example, the researchers will create stories or vignettes to describe situations under investigation. Using a set of dynamics and situations, a computer, based on the data it receives, will generate child care stories for participants.
In the third study, researchers will employ observational methods to compare the quality of child care used by eligible families, using subsidies with those who qualify for cash benefits, but do not use them.
"We know that in certain communities it's not considered appropriate to have your child cared for by a person outside the community. Some people consider going to a child care center, or using someone not connected to the family or community as not very good for the child," says Shlay. "We are looking at whether families differ in how they perceive child care. One hypothesis is that families somehow view the child care system either negatively or positively."
At the completion of the project, the Temple researchers hope to provide policy makers with information that could be used to develop child care subsidy policies that are culturally sensitive to the needs and preferences of families relying on the system.
"Policies governing child care subsidies may be more effective if they are designed to reflect the needs and desires of the families they are intended to serve," says Shlay, stressing that there is no current information that reveals how families view the system or the child care market.
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