“Over one-third of all women did not finish high school. Our sampled families — across California, Connecticut, and Florida — vary in their demographic and economic features.”

“Over half of all women (52%) are using their own income to pay their child care provider.”

“The scarcity of stable, quality child care limits women’s ability to move from welfare to work.”

“Sharp differences appear among states in the share of young children who are placed in preschools and child-care centers. This wide variability may be due to differences in the supply of center-based programs in our participating cities. We also are analyzing how maternal and family level factors are driving these differing child-care decisions.”

“As participating women entered the study, many reported a difficult time in simply paying for food — while their toddlers and preschoolers are moving through crucial years of development.”

“Most participating women live with other adults. Just under a third live alone, with their child or children. About a third live with just one other adult, who can be their own mother, another kin member, or male partner. The remaining third live with two or more adults. Yet many feel quite alone as a parent. One fourth of all women report that they have no one to talk to when they are upset.”

Young children are moving into low-quality child care settings as their mothers are moving from welfare to work.

Child care subsidies reach unequal fractions of poor families and encourage the use of unlicensed care.

Young children’s early learning and development is limited by uneven parenting practices and high rates of maternal depression.

A sizable share of women are moving into jobs.

Wages are low and household economies remain impoverished.

Levels of economic and social support gained by women are uneven.

Local strategies to help working families pay for child care include the following:

• A consistent, positive, and strong relationship between rates of child development in the cognitive domain and participation in center-based programs.
• Developmental effects were strongest for measures of school readiness and for children who were in a center at both Waves I and II.
• The center effect remained sizable even in models that included other possible determinants of development, such as age, ethnicity , mother's education, mother's work and welfare status, and income.
• Children also display stronger cognitive growth when caregivers are more sensitive and responsive, and stronger social development when providers have education beyond high school.
• Children in family child care homes show more behavioral problems but no cognitive differences.