Challenging child care: a quantitative analysis of how parents use and choose child care

This study examines what parents consider when choosing child care and how\ud their level of satisfaction is affected by their choice. Much of the literature on child\ud care provides a hegemonic definition of quality care which suggests that quality care\ud is educationally focused. Educational care is pitted against custodial care and other\ud reasons for choosing care are not explored. Also, other characteristics that may\ud contribute to a quality setting from a parent's point of view are not discussed. This\ud thesis challenges the discourse that informs the definition of quality child care and\ud finds the middle ground between educational and custodial care. This study argues\ud that educational reasons for choosing care will not be the only reason contributing to\ud an increase in parent's satisfaction levels.\ud Several of the hypotheses from this study were supported. Educational reasons\ud for selecting a provider did not have a significant affect on satisfaction levels when\ud compared to custodial reasons but alternative benefit reasons did. This shows that\ud future research is needed to examine how parents actually define quality child care.\ud Keywords: Child care, Quality, Education, Choosing care, Alternative benefit