Child-Care Instability and the Effort to Sustain a Working Daily Routine: Evidence From the New Hope Ethnographic Study of Low-Income Families

It has never been easy for contemporary parents in the United States to organize stable child care while working, harder for single parents, and harder still for low-income families. Stable child-care arrangements for low-income families are important for both the long-term stability of maternal employment (Hofferth & Collins, 2000), and, when in literacy-enriching settings, in helping preschool and school-age children perform better in school (Fuller, Kagan, Caspary, & Gauthier, 2002, pp. 98-101; O’Brien-Caughy, DiPietro, & Strobino, 1994). Therefore, it is important to understand what aspects of family life can contribute to a greater or lesser amount of stability in child-care arrangements over time.