Research Reading Report 1 Essay Samples

Purpose

The purpose of the article is to provide scientific knowledge that can be relied upon in the development of quality child care services and related policies. It reviews, organizes and summarizes the literature that supports the proposed theoretical model. The proposed theory is grounded on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, and it looks at child care services choices under the influence of child factors, family characteristics, and environmental factors.

Method

The information, facts, and knowledge used in the article are sourced from books, articles, and other academic publications. The article relies on past researches on factors that influence child care choices to bolster arguments and support the proposed model. The article begins by examining various determinants of child care choices alternatives for working mothers. It first introduces the Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. It states that the theory is recognizes and uses contextual factors and personal characteristics to understand parental behavior. Consequently, it has been used by researchers that include Pungello and Kurtz-Costes to study relationship between maternal factors that include beliefs relating to effects of child care, maternal behaviors, and environmental factors that include factors neighborhood characteristics and policies.
The next section of the review is on the types and descriptions of child care. The article begins by defining child care as the care that is given to a preschool baby on the regular basis by people who are not the parents of the concerned baby. This non-parental care can be provided at the center or home. Hence, there are three types of care; relative care, center care and non-relative care. Center care is formal and done in group setting.
The article discusses the proposed model at length in the section following the type of care services. It commences by stating that the proposed theoretical model consists of three key factors. These factors are categorized as child characteristics, and family characteristics and contextual factors. Some of the mentioned child characteristics include disabilities and age. Family characteristics stated in the article include belief relating to child care, race, immigration status, education, family structure, income, ethnicity, and work factors. On the other hand, contextual factors captured are neighborhood characteristics and state policies.
There is a detailed discussion of how each factor influences child care choices after the discussion on model. The author gives two main family structures; married and single women. According to the article, children from single parents are likely to be taken child care services. The works factors considered in the article work hours and schedule. The author has mentioned various studies that have established that mothers with few work hours are more likely to select in-home care. Again, center care services are most sought after during normal working hours than at night and weekends. On education, the article reports that mothers with higher education tend to place their babies under center care compared with relative care. On ethnicity, the article provides conflicting findings concerning the association between race and child care services selection. On immigration status, it is stated that immigrant mothers especially from low incomes are less likely to use center care. On language, the article quotes studies that have established that mothers from minority language communities are less likely to select center care services. This finding is also true for mothers who pose traditional beliefs about gender and child care. On children’s age, the article highlighted various studies that have found that home-based care is more common for infants and as the child advances in age, mothers prefer center care.
The article concludes by a discussion on the implication of the proposed model. The outlined implications borders around quality, awareness and child care services. The model according to the author directs professionals and policy makers to use the model to understand and improve the quality, access and awareness of care services.