DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39160.v1
title: Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences Study (HBCC P&E Study), Alabama, Arizona, California, New York, 2023-2024
title: Version 1

description: Home-based child care (HBCC) is a vital part of the nation's child care supply and the most common form of non-parental care (Datta et al. 2021a; Datta et al. 2021b). Yet HBCC providers have fewer resources and supports than providers in child care centers have, and many HBCC providers face challenges providing care (Henly and Adams 2018; NCECQA 2020; Bromer et al. 2021a, 2021b). The supply of licensed and subsidized family child care has also declined dramatically over the past decade (Datta et al. 2021a; NCECQA 2020). The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services contracted with Mathematica and Erikson Institute to study (1) gaps in our understanding of HBCC supply and availability and (2) challenges defining and measuring quality in HBCC settings through the Home-Based Child Care Supply and Quality (HBCCSQ) project.
The HBCCSQ project conducted two studies. The Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences Study (HBCC P&E Study) was a qualitative study of family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers across four sites in the United States. The HBCC P&E Study's objective was to learn about the experiences, strengths, resources, and strategies used by FFN providers and how these experiences intersect with their cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities and geographic locations.
The Home-Based Child Care Toolkit for Nurturing School-Age Children (HBCC-NSAC Toolkit) Study was a validation study of the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit, a new measure designed to assess and strengthen the quality of care for school-age children in home-based child care. The HBCC-NSAC Toolkit Study's objective was to examine the reliability and validity evidence of the English version of the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit provider questionnaire and understand if the HBCC-NSAC Toolkit provider questionnaire can support home-based providers to identify and reflect on their caregiving strengths and areas for growth.
For more information, visit the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation HBCCSQ website.
description: The Home-Based Child Care Supply and Quality (HBCCSQ) project included the Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences Study (HBCC P&E Study), a qualitative study of family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers across four sites in the United States. The HBCC P&E Study sheds light on the experiences of FFN providers who are involved or might become involved in child care and early education (CCEE) systems. The HBCC P&E Study's objective was to learn about the experiences, strengths, resources, and strategies used by FFN providers and how these experiences intersect with their cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities and geographic locations.
The primary research questions for the HBCC P&E study include:
What are the features of quality for children and families that FFN providers prioritize, especially providers across different cultural, racial, ethnic, linguistic, and geographic groups? Why do they prioritize these features?
How do FFN providers implement features of quality, including the features they consider most important?
What are the resources, including sources of knowledge and individual, family, and community strengths, that FFN providers use or access? How do providers acquire or access these resources? Which resources do providers find most helpful, and why? What challenges do FFN providers face in using or accessing resources?
What are the features of quality that families prioritize and experience in FFN care and why do they prioritize them?
How do the features of quality that providers consider most important and that families consider most important align?
description: The HBCC P&E Study partnered with four community organizations that support FFN providers to gain the trust of and recruit FFN providers. The FFN providers then chose family and community members to be included in the study. The study team conducted semi-structured interviews with the providers, families, and community members. Each provider was interviewed at two time points. Family and community members were interviewed at one time point only. The study also used participatory methodologies, including photo and audio journals, that allowed providers to share their experiences with the study team. Providers shared photographs of their everyday child care practices, participated in follow-up discussions about these photographs, and entered open-ended narratives of their experiences into recorded audio journals each week. These methods gave the study team a variety of ways to see and hear providers' perspectives on their practices and experiences and what they find most important. The User's Manual includes additional information about the study design.
description: Response Rates: The HBCC P&E Study team collected provider interview 1 data from 48 providers, provider interview 2 from 45 providers, 4 weeks of audio and photo journals from 34 providers (one of these providers did not complete the fourth week of photo journal), the family interview from 27 family members, and the community member interview from 26 community members. The User's Manual includes more information about the number of transcripts by data source.
description: When considering possible sites, the team purposively selected sites that had community organizations that were willing and had the capacity to support the study. Additionally, the team selected sites that support providers from a range of backgrounds, are in states with different policy contexts, and are in states with different quality improvements supports available for FFN providers. To recruit FFN providers, the study team partnered with four trusted partner community organizations that offer support to FFN providers across the study sites. The study team used non-probability, purposive sampling to identify potential respondents. The HBCC P&E Study ultimately collected data from 48 FFN providers, 27 family members, and 26 community members. The User's Manual includes more information about the sampling approach for each participant group.
Since participants were purposively selected, they are not representative of their populations. The range of characteristics of providers, settings, and communities included in the study was limited. The study's findings shed light on the experiences of some FFN providers - those who are involved or might later become involved in child care and early education (CCEE) systems. This study intended to present internally valid descriptions of this population in chosen sites, not to promote statistical generalization to other sites or service populations. However, it cannot be concluded whether any findings are representative of these subgroups of FFN providers throughout the country, nor whether they are representative of the experiences of all FFN providers.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Home-Based Child Care Practices and Experiences Study (HBCC P&E Study), Alabama, Arizona, California, New York, 2023-2024
description: Family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers who were at least 18 years old and (1) provided care for at least 15 hours per week, (2) provided care in their own home, (3) did not have a current license to provide home-based child care, and (4) met at least one of the following conditions: (a) received payment for providing care, (b) had considered licensing, and/or (c) had experience in child care and early education, either paid or as a volunteer, or had related training.. Smallest Geographic Unit: State
description: mixed mode; telephone interview<strong>ACF Project Officer:</strong> Ann Rivera
<strong>ACF Project Team Members:</strong> Bonnie Mackintosh, Kylee Probert, and Marlyn Portorreal
<strong>Project Director:</strong> Ashley Kopack Klein (Mathematica)
<strong>Co-Principal Investigator:</strong> Juliet Bromer (Erikson Institute)
Acknowledgments:
<strong>Study Lead:</strong> Marina Ragonese-Barnes (Erikson Institute)
<strong>Consultant:</strong> Toni Porter (Early Care and Education Consulting)
<strong>Co-Principal Investigator:</strong> Sally Atkins-Burnett (Consultant to Mathematica)The User's Manual provides information about the HBCC P&E Study design, an overview of the sampling approach and data collection procedures, and the data to inform and assist researchers who have an analytic use case for exploring the HBCC P&E Study's data. The HBCC P&E Study's English and Spanish instruments can be found in "Appendix A HBCC P&E Study Instruments." Codebooks containing variable names, labels, and frequencies for select FFN provider, family member, and community member characteristics can be found in "Appendix B HBCC P&E Study Codebooks." For qualitative interviewing training guidance provided to HBCC P&E Study interviewers, refer to "Appendix C HBCC P&E Study Interviewer Training Guide."ICPSR zipped the data files in a qualitative data package (DS1), which is available with restricted access. The data package includes 180 transcripts and a Sample Characteristics Excel file. Please see the User's Manual and the ICPSR README file for additional information.Photographs taken by providers over the course of this study are not included in the HBCC P&E Study qualitative collection archive. However, users can find providers' descriptions and follow-up discussions about each photograph in the transcripts of Provider Interview #2.Reports based on this data collection will be available at the Administration for Children and Families website.
For additional information about the Home-Based Child Care Supply and Quality (HBCCSQ) project and reports based on the HBCC P&E Study, please visit the HBCCSQ project webpage on the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation website.<strong>References</strong>
Bromer Juliet, Samantha Melvin, Toni Porter, and Marina Ragonese-Barnes. "The Shifting Supply of Regulated Family Child Care in the U.S: A Literature Review and Conceptual Model." Chicago, IL: Herr Research Center, Erikson Institute, 2021a.
Bromer, Juliet, Toni Porter, Samantha Melvin, and Marina Ragonese-Barnes. "Family Child Care Educators' Perspectives on Leaving, Staying, and Entering the Field: Findings from the Multi-State Study of Family Child Care Decline and Supply." Chicago, IL: Herr Research Center, Erikson Institute, 2021b.
Datta, A., C. Milesi, S. Srivastava, and C. Zapata-Gietl. "NSECE Chartbook - Home-based Early Care and Education Providers in 2012 and 2019: Counts and Characteristics." OPRE Report #2021-85. Washington DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021.
Henly, J.R., and G. Adams. "Increasing Access to Quality Child Care for Four Priority Populations: Challenges and Opportunities with CCDBG Reauthorization." Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2018.
National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance (NCECQA). "Addressing the Decreasing Number of Family Child Care Providers in the United States." Fairfax, VA: National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, revised March 2020.