What family characteristics or other factors are associated with selection/use of particular CCEE?

Information about family preferences and factors that influence their decisions on CCEE is typically collected through a survey of families. Answering this question can provide information about the aspects of CCEE programs different families prioritize or how family CCEE choices may be restricted based on a variety of factors.  To answer this question link family level information to site level information and analyze data on family choice by family and site level characteristics of interest.

Identify Family and Site Level Characteristics of Interest

The types of factors that could influence family decisions about CCEE options include demographic characteristics, knowledge/awareness of a QRIS, use of a QRIS, and personal preferences for choosing a program site. Below are some examples of analyses that could be performed to examine how these factors influence families’ selection of care. Information on program sites and families can be connected through Family ID and Site ID. A variety of data elements can also be used to create sub-groups of families including family characteristics and/or program characteristics. Linking families to program sites allows the stratification of family preference information by type of program and any other program characteristic of interest. These elements could include Year Schedule, Early Childhood Setting, and Cultural/Linguistic Diversity in addition to other program characteristics.

Analyze the Association of Characteristics of Interest with Selection/Use of CCEE

Example 1. Do families with higher levels of awareness of QRIS have children in programs at higher QRIS levels? Use the data element Parent Knowledge of the QRIS and create two groups from the categories “Parent recognizes the name of the QRIS” and “Parent doesn’t recognize the QRIS name.” Families and program sites should be connected through Family ID and Site ID. Use the data element QRIS Score to isolate those program sites with quality ratings at the highest levels. The number of levels that are considered high quality will depend on the state definitions. Divide the total number of families in the category “Parent recognizes the name of the QRIS” who also have children served at program sites that are high quality by the total number of families with data for the element Parent Knowledge of the QRIS. Perform this same operation for the other category and compare the percentages to see which is higher.

Example 2. Do families with higher levels of satisfaction with their child care arrangements experience more stability in their arrangements? Use the data element Parent Satisfaction and create two groups of families (Family ID): those that are “Highly” or “Somewhat Satisfied” (code as “1”) and those that are “Somewhat Unsatisfied” or “Very Unsatisfied” (code as “2”). Link the family information to the child’s information using Child ID. Link child information to program level information using Site ID. A child may be concurrently enrolled in several programs. Multiple enrollments for the same child should not necessarily be interpreted as a change in child care arrangement. Children who have entry dates for one program only can be coded as “0”. Children with no program Exit Date for all enrollments or with a program exit date that is greater than the child’s entry date for a different program can also be coded “0”. This group of children did not experience a change in child care arrangements. To identify children in the dataset who experienced a change in child care arrangements, assign a code of “1” to children that have a program exit date that is less than or equal to the child’s Child Entry Date for a different program (Site ID).This identifies children who exited a program and entered another.  Calculate the total number of children (Child ID) in each coded child group for families coded as “1” and for families coded as “2” for levels of satisfaction earlier. These can then be divided by the total number of children in each of the two satisfaction groups to obtain the percent of children in each group that did and did not experience a change in child care arrangements.