There is little research on the well-being of family child care (FCC) providers who participate in the child care subsidy system, despite concerns about their declining numbers in the child care market. Drawing on survey data from a sample of 903 subsidized FCC providers in Massachusetts, this study examined an array of potential correlates associated with provider burnout. Guided by the Job Demands-Resources model, the study employed sequential linear regression models using the block method to assess the associations between job demands and job resources and burnout, controlling for provider demographic characteristics. Multivariate regression results showed that job demand variables representing administrative challenges, children’s social-emotional challenges, and a lack of parent engagement were significantly associated with increases in burnout. Related to job resources, providers’ utilization of supportive services for children and families and access to professional development were significantly associated with decreases in burnout. Findings suggest that enhancing access to professional development and community resources to support underserved children and reducing administrative burden associated with the subsidy system may be potential strategies for mitigating burnout among subsidized FCC providers.

Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) can disrupt and impair children’s early development. Some evidence suggests that early care and education (ECE) participation may buffer some of these negative influences, but this area remains understudied. The current study draws on primary data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 17 IPV survivor mothers of young children and 6 ECE providers in New England to examine the ECE needs of children exposed to IPV and the supportive factors within ECE settings that can promote their resilience. Findings revealed that children’s IPV exposure tended to increase their needs from ECE providers and settings, and that ECE providers’ awareness of children’s IPV exposure and adequate understanding of IPV dynamics were important for supporting these needs. Participants reported key resilience-promoting features within ECE settings for children exposed to IPV: 1) risk focused factors, such as reduced exposure to IPV and prevention of IPV perpetrators’ unsafe contact with children, 2) resource-focused factors, including nurturance, stability, and facilitated access to therapeutic services, and 3) process-focused factors, including scaffolded opportunities to strengthen emotion regulation and social development. Results highlight the important role of high quality ECE for young children exposed to IPV and suggest its potential for promoting their resilience.

Utilization rates of early care and education (ECE) programs among young children (ages 0-5) involved with child protective services (CPS) are significantly lower than those of all U.S. children in this age group (39% vs. 74%). Research on factors contributing to this disparity, potentially driven by inequitable access to care, is limited. Expanding access to quality ECE for CPS-involved children depends on ECE providers’ willingness and capacity to serve them, yet no studies have examined ECE providers’ experiences in this context. This study analyzes focus group data from 84 diverse ECE providers across Massachusetts who provide subsidized child care to CPS-involved children, aiming to understand providers’ experiences and identify resources and supports needed to meet these children's needs. Using the social ecological model, providers’ experiences are categorized into three major themes and subthemes: (1) individual factors (responding to critical needs of children, a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment through serving them, relevant knowledge and experience with the population), (2) child and family-related challenges (meeting children's behavioral needs, challenges in engaging with families, inconsistence attendance due to transportation), and (3) community and policy factors (need for resources and financial support, specialized trainings such as trauma-informed care, behavioral management, better information-sharing about children's circumstances, influence of foster care placement on child care settings, needs for greater subsidy policy flexibility). Implications for policymakers, ECE providers, and future research are discussed.

As many as 48% of children in prekindergarten (pre-K) miss a month or more of the pre-K year (i.e., 10% or more of the school year), and high levels of absenteeism are associated with adverse academic and social-emotional outcomes in pre-K and in K-12. To date, no studies have examined absenteeism specifically among children receiving child care subsidies, a population of children who may be at greater risk for high absenteeism. Moreover, few studies have explored absenteeism in diverse early care and education (ECE) programs beyond public school pre-K or Head Start programs. This study uses administrative data from Massachusetts to address these gaps by (1) documenting absenteeism rates for children receiving subsidies during the pre-K year in both family child care (FCC) and center-based care (CBC) programs and in kindergarten; and (2) testing whether pre-K absenteeism is associated with kindergarten absenteeism in the full sample and by ECE program type. Results show that children enrolled in subsidized care were absent for an average 8.4% of the school year in pre-K and 5.9% of the school year in kindergarten. Absenteeism rates were lower in pre-K but slightly higher in kindergarten among children enrolled in FCCs, compared to those enrolled in CBCs (Pre-K: 7.2 versus 8.7%; Kindergarten: 6.2 vs 5.8%, respectively). Results from multilevel regression analyses showed that the associations between pre-K and kindergarten absenteeism were positive for children enrolled in both CBC and FCC programs. By documenting the prevalence of absenteeism among a sample of children receiving child care subsidies in diverse ECE programs, this study provides implications for ECE and child care subsidy research, policy, and practice.

Early exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with childhood internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems (IBP, EBP). This study investigates whether child care arrangement moderates associations between children’s IPV exposure and their subsequent IBP and EBP. We used four waves of national, longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well Being Survey (N = 3,108) to examine the moderating role of informal, formal home-based, and center-based child care on associations between children’s IPV exposure and behavioral outcomes. Ordinary least squares regression models with interaction terms and subgroup analyses using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) were employed. After adjusting for covariates, non-parental child care, compared with parental care, significantly moderated associations between children’s exposure to frequent, physical, and coercive IPV and later behavioral problems. Center-based care had the most extensive influence: the respective interactions between center-based care (vs. parental care) and frequent (β = -1.9 [95

ABSTRACT: Objective: The aim of this study was to understand parents'/guardians' experiences and aspirations around economic mobility and their impact on the acceptability and use of financial services embedded in frequented, trusted settings such as schools and pediatric clinics. Method: We recruited 18 English-speaking guardians with at least 1 child enrolled in a school for low-income families and eligible for Internal Revenue Service-sponsored free tax preparation. Each participant completed a semistructured interview before tax filing; a subset completed follow-up interviews. We used grounded theory analysis. Results: We developed the following theoretical model based on our key thematic findings to describe the acceptability and use of financial services within the context of guardians' lived experiences and pre-existing efforts to build economic mobility: Families experience multilevel barriers to economic mobility. Despite these barriers, guardians are proactively working to build economic mobility by empowering the next generation with knowledge, skills, and assets and resiliently pursuing economic goals. As a result, guardians will accept empowering, nonjudgmental, expert, and trustworthy financial services that contribute to their existing efforts. To move from acceptance to use, financial services must be effectively publicized, accessible, and supportive. Conclusion: Financial services may be more acceptable and used if they are embedded in trusted organizations and have expert, supportive staff with lived experience who empower guardians to work toward their economic goals, accessible platforms, and effective publicity. These characteristics may facilitate uptake and economic mobility. Trusted organizations serving young families can partner with financial services to test these findings and help families build economic mobility.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in the USA is designed to address poverty. Because of the link to poverty, it may indirectly affect child maltreatment outcomes. However, TANF spending by states, which differs by the state's racial composition, may moderate the effects. This study explores the relationship between states' TANF spending and child maltreatment outcomes with the states' Black population concentration as a moderator. The analysis used state-level data including TANF administrative data from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA), child maltreatment data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), and population data from the American Community Survey (ACS). The sample includes 50 states and District of Columbia from 2015 to 2017 (n = 153). The results from the multivariate regression models show that both TANF spending on family and marriage promotion and TANF spending on work activities were associated with decreases in neglect (7.5% decrease, p<.01 and 11% reduction, p<.05, respectively), but the size of the decreases depended on the states' Black population concentration. Findings suggest that TANF spending is linked to child maltreatment rates with consideration of states' Black population. This article has implications for anti-racist poverty policy and child abuse prevention.

BACKGROUND:Little remains known about both Asian and Asian American (A/AA) and non-Asian young adults' experiences and affective reactions regarding COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination. To our knowledge, this is the first study that explores the nature and impact of COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination within a multi-racial sample.METHODS:This study uses qualitative open-ended responses from a sub-sample of Wave I of the COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study (CARES) data collected between March to September 2020. Thematic analysis was used to explore two open-ended questions: "Are there experiences we missed in the survey so far that you wish to describe?" and "What are your thoughts about the current social climate?" The data analysis for this study focused on 113 discrimination or racism-related comments.RESULTS:A total of 1331 young adults completed an online survey of which 611 provided comments; a multi-racial sample of 95 individuals (65.3% non-Asians, 24.7% A/AA) contributed 113 COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination or racism-related comments. Two overarching themes were: types of discrimination (societal, interpersonal, intrapersonal) and affective reactions to discrimination (fear, anxiety/distress, hopelessness/depression, and avoidance). Not only did both A/AA and non-Asian participants report witnessing or hearing reports of anti-Asian discrimination, but both groups described having negative affective reactions to anti-Asian discrimination.CONCLUSION:Anti-Asian discrimination in the face of COVID may be more widespread than initial reports indicate. Our finding suggests that anti-Asian discrimination is a societal illness that impacts all populations in the U.S. This calls for cross-racial coalitions and solidarity in the fight against discrimination and racism.

Under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014, the federal government requires that states build their supply of high quality child care and ensure that subsidy-receiving children have equal access to care. While the majority of states use child care vouchers as their primary or only subsidy mechanism, federal policy encourages states to directly contract with child care providers for subsidized slots as a strategy to promote quality and access to care, particularly for underserved populations. However, little is known about the characteristics of providers that participate in contracts or the factors that hinder or facilitate their participation. This study seeks to identify correlates of provider participation in contracts versus vouchers using administrative data on licensed center-based child care providers participating in Massachusetts' subsidy system. The study finds that while centers that are members of umbrella organizations or are accredited are more likely to participate in contracts compared to vouchers only, centers that are for-profit organizations or located in communities with higher median household incomes are less likely to participate in contracts. No evidence is found to suggest that a larger gap between centers' private pay prices and the subsidy reimbursement rate influences their participation in contracts. These results suggest that higher administrative capacity or mission-driven providers are more likely to participate in contracts and that contracted slots are likely to be available in low-income areas, which can help to improve access to care for low-income families.

Objectives: Little is known about both Asian and Asian American (A/AA) and non-Asian young adults’ experiences and emotional reactions regarding COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination. This is the first study to explore the nature and impact of COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination through a racially diverse sample. Design: This study uses open-ended qualitative free-text responses from Wave I of the COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study (CARES) data collected between March to September 2020. Thematic analysis was used to explore two open-ended questions: “Are there experiences we missed in the survey so far that you wish to describe?” and “What are your thoughts about the current social climate?” The data analysis for this study focused on 113 discrimination or racism-related comments. Results: A total of 1,331 young adults completed an online survey of which 611 provided comments; a total of 95 racially diverse individuals (65.3% non-Asians) contributed 113 COVID-19 anti-Asian discrimination or racism-related comments. Two overarching themes were: types of discrimination (societal, interpersonal, intrapersonal), and emotional reactions to discrimination (fear, anxiety/distress, hopeless/depression, and avoidance). Not only did both A/AA and non-Asian participants report witnessing or hearing reports of anti-Asian discrimination, but both groups reported experiencing negative emotional reactions to anti-Asian discrimination. Conclusion: Anti-Asian discrimination in the face of COVID may be more widespread than initial reports indicate. Our finding suggests that anti-Asian discrimination is a societal illness that impacts all populations in the U.S. This calls for cross-racial coalitions and solidarity in the fight against discrimination and racism.

OBJECTIVE:This study investigates the prevalence of COVID-19-related discrimination and the extent to which COVID-19-related discrimination is associated with mental health symptoms among Asians and Asian American (A/AA) young adults during the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic.METHODS:We used data from the COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study (CARES), a cross-sectional online survey conducted in the U.S. Out of 1,001 respondents, 211 A/AA young adults were analyzed for this study.RESULTS:Sixty-eight percent of A/AA young adults reported that they or their family have experienced COVID-19-related discrimination and approximately 15% of respondents reported verbal or physical assaults. After controlling for covariates including predisposing factors, lifetime discrimination, and pre-existing mental health diagnoses, COVID-19-related discrimination was significantly associated with an increased level of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but not of anxiety or depression. Our study results suggest that COVID-19-related discrimination may contribute to PTSD symptoms among A/AA young adults.LIMITATIONS:This was cross-sectional data which was collected through online and self-report rather than clinical evaluation.CONCLUSION:This finding adds greater urgency to develop and implement policy- and individual-level interventions to reduce race-based discrimination among A/AA.

This study assesses administrative changes in Massachusetts that shifted the responsibility for child-care subsidy-eligibility reassessments from regional Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to locally contracted child-care providers. The study applies a mixed-methods approach, using (1) state administrative data to examine the association between the administrative changes and children's stability of subsidy receipt and (2) qualitative methods to illustrate the potential explanatory factors generating observed associations. We find a positive relationship between the administrative changes and subsidy stability overall but also substantial regional variation, which can be explained in part by policy- and organization-level variation identified in our qualitative research. Findings of the study highlight the importance of considering multilevel factors when designing, implementing, and evaluating changes in social service delivery practices and point to the need for a mixed-methods approach to evaluate such changes.

Low-income families experience multiple forms of instability, yet researchers have often focused on a single type of instability. This study used data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and examined patterns of multiple instability among low-income families with children, focusing on income, family structure, and residential instability. We employed sequence and cluster analyses to identify five distinct longitudinal profiles of multiple instability over five time points in a 2-year time period. The two largest profile groups experienced moderate overall and multiple instability (32 percent of families) or no instability (24 percent of families), with the remaining families experiencing increasing, decreasing, or persistent patterns of instability. There were stark differences between families in the no-instability group and the other families. Our findings suggest safety net programs must be more responsive to multiple forms of instability for all low-income families, and for certain subgroups of highly unstable groups in particular.

ObjectiveTo examine the relationships between state‐sponsored paid leave, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) generosity and participation, and material hardship among low‐income single women following a birth.BackgroundPast research has examined the relationship between public assistance and paid leave after a birth, finding reductions in program enrollment. This research has not accounted for variation in program benefits across states and has largely overlooked implications for family well‐being.MethodWe use a sample (N = 1,174) of low‐income single women who gave birth between 1997 and 2001 from the Survey of Income and Public Program Participation and include measures of TANF generosity across states and over time that were constructed from the Welfare Rules database. A series of multivariate probit regression models are used to estimate the relationship between TANF generosity, paid leave availability, welfare participation, and material hardship while controlling for relevant individual and state‐level characteristics.ResultsPaid leave was associated with less TANF participation, but these reduction are related to the program's generosity. Paid leave, states' welfare work exemptions for mothers of infants, and TANF earnings eligibility limits were associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing some forms of material hardship.ConclusionSome forms of paid leave and TANF program generosity are related to reductions in TANF participation and material hardship after a birth for low‐income single women.ImplicationsThis study demonstrates that researchers should account for variation in TANF programs when considering changes in program enrollment associated with paid leave. Results suggest paid leave may help alleviate some forms of economic stress after a birth, which has implications for maternal, infant, and family well‐being.

Rates of shelter use among young adults (ages 18-24) experiencing homelessness are disproportionally low, compared to youth or older adults experiencing homelessness. The high unsheltered rate exposes these young adults to significant short- and long-term risks, while shelter use is associated with positive and improved outcomes, including increased access to other supportive services. Few studies have focused on factors related to low rates of shelter use among young adults or on the relative importance of such factors. The present study examines a series of background and contextual factors that are associated with shelter use among young adults experiencing homelessness. Using survey data (n = 338) collected in Houston, Texas, this study employs multiple logistic regression to examine correlates of shelter use and to assess the relative importance of each factor. Results indicate several significant characteristics were positively associated with shelter use, including being female, being non-white, using other types of services, and Internet use. We highlight research, practice, and policy implications around understanding differences in shelter and drop-in center use and ensuring young adults can find and access shelters with services geared toward their age group.

Child support contributes to many custodial‐mother families’ income, yet there are persistent concerns that many noncustodial fathers have low‐wage, unstable jobs that limit their ability to pay child support. Thus, child support may exacerbate inequality—that is, it may transfer resources from a low‐income noncustodial father to a custodial‐mother family that is already better off. These arguments, however, are generally made without reference to couple‐level data. This study uses multiple sources of Wisconsin administrative data to construct measures of income, including earnings, public transfers, and tax liabilities and benefits, on matched pairs of custodial and noncustodial parents and provides evidence on the role of child support in equalizing income between them. Findings show that for divorced couples, fathers are substantially better off than custodial mothers in pre‐tax/transfer income. Taxes and transfers reduce fathers’ relative advantages, and child support equalizes incomes between fathers and mothers. For never‐married couples, fathers have a slight advantage in pre‐tax/transfer income. Fathers’ relative advantage disappears after taxes and transfers; mothers are likely to be better off when measured by post–child support income, even after adjusting for the costs of children. These findings provide contexts relevant to implementation of the new federal child support regulations, finalized in 2016.

This study utilizes Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey data to investigate children's (17 years and younger) health insurance coverage and routine medical and dental care visits by family immigration status (N = 2846). We use a combination of nativity (U.S. and foreign born) and legal status (authorized and unauthorized) of mothers and their children to categorize family immigration status (citizen mother-citizen child; authorized mother-citizen/authorized child; unauthorized mother-citizen/authorized child; unauthorized mother-unauthorized child). Health care use is measured by routine medical visits and dental visits. We find that health insurance coverage and dental visits are lowest for the children of unauthorized mothers but gaps are most pronounced for unauthorized mother–unauthorized child pairs. Policy implications, in light of recent health and immigration-related legislation, are discussed.