Stability in Nonmaternal Child Care Arrangements

Recent research suggests that many preschoolers
routinely experience unstable child care, which
refers to children''s consistency in experience with
care providers or in care arrangements. Other
research shows these unstable care experiences have
negative effects on children''s school readiness and
adjustment outcomes. The current study looks at this
important area of research in child care and
specifically examines the effects of several types
of child care stability including frequency of child
care arrangement and caregiver changes, use of
multiple concurrent child care arrangements over
time, and staff turnover rates in center-based child
care on children''s school readiness and adjustment
outcomes, the rates and effects of child care
stability on children from families of varying
income levels, and the mediating influences of two
potential processes child-caregiver attachment
relationships and the child care quality on
children''s school readiness and adjustment outcomes.
The implications of the study findings and future
directions of the research are discussed.