IDENTIFYING AND EXPLORING PROFILES OF HOME-BASED CHILD CARE PROVIDERS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY OF LICENSED AND UNLICENSED PROVIDERS

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to broaden the understanding of home- based child care providers who receive child care subsidy and the quality of care they provide. It is a mixed methods examination of licensed and unlicensed home-based child care providers. The study will use a national sample of home-based providers from the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE; NSECE Project Team, 2013) to explore national trends, as well as a sample of providers in Delaware to garner a deeper understanding of the results of the analysis of the national data. Connecting the state-specific sample to the national sample will allow a more in-depth exploration of the practices and beliefs of home- based providers and provide insight into how to better tailor quality improvement efforts to meet their needs. Using data on listed and unlisted paid home-based providers from the NSECE, latent profile analysis will be employed to identify profiles of providers based on their caregiving beliefs and practices, perceived social support, professional engagement, and family support. The analysis will also explore how these profiles may differ based on providers' licensing status and subsidy use. The research questions for the project are as follows: To what extent do home-based providers group into profiles based on key characteristics related to their beliefs, practices, and professional engagement? How do these profiles align with licensing status? b. How do these profiles align with subsidy receipt? What is the predicted profile membership of home-based providers in Delaware? How do home-based providers in each profile perceive their role and what is the quality of care they provide to children? What is the relationship between providers' role perceptions and quality of care provided?