Using Kin for Child Care: Embedment in the Socioeconomic Networks of Extended Families
Author(s)
Uttal, Lynet
Abstract
This exploratory analysis offers a new explanation of why African American and Mexican American mothers who are employed are more likely than Anglo American mothers to use child care arrangements with relatives. In-depth interviews with 31 racially diverse employed mothers in Santa Cruz County, CA, revealed race and ethnic differences in views of the appropriateness of using kin-based care. Analysis shows how decisions to use kin-based child care are shaped not by only the individual needs of the family requiring child care, but also by how families with young children are embedded in the socioeconomic networks of the extended family and take the economic needs of the members of their extended families into account when making child care arrangements.
