Children's Institute, Rochester, NY 14607, USA.
Acad Pediatr. 2011 Jan-Feb;11(1):80-7. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2010.11.005.
Many parents struggle to secure high-quality, consistent child care services, and this may impact employment decisions. Our objectives were to determine the type of employment problems that parents attribute to difficulties in securing child care and to identify whether having a child with behavior problems and/or chronic illness is independently associated with child care-related employment problems in the United States.
This study included parents of children aged 0 to 13 years by using household-level sampling from the nationally representative random digit dial survey Gallup panel. We included 9 measures of child care-related employment problems. Poststratification weights were applied based on census region, income, and education by using Stata's poststratification commands.
A survey was conducted of 1431 households with at least 1 parent employed. Overall, 46% of households reported 1 or more child care-related employment change. Being absent from work (21%) and changing the work schedule (27%) were the most prevalent changes reported. Two-parent households were significantly less likely to report child care-related employment changes compared with single parent households. Households with a stay-at-home parent were less likely to report child care-related absenteeism but more likely to report recently quitting work compared with households without a stay-at-home parent. Having a child with behavior problems or a serious chronic health condition was associated with double to triple odds of many child care-related employment problems.
Child care-related employment problems are common among families with a child with chronic illness or behavior problems. These findings support the need for pediatricians and policy makers to strive for the implementation of more parent-friendly labor conditions.
许多父母难以获得高质量、一致的儿童保育服务，这可能会影响他们的就业决策。我们的目的是确定父母将哪些类型的就业问题归因于难以获得儿童保育服务，并确定儿童是否存在行为问题和/或慢性疾病是否与美国的儿童保育相关就业问题独立相关。
本研究通过使用全国代表性随机数字拨号调查盖洛普小组的家庭水平抽样，纳入了 0 至 13 岁儿童的父母。我们纳入了 9 项与儿童保育相关的就业问题指标。根据普查区域、收入和教育，使用 Stata 的 poststratification 命令应用 poststratification 权重。
对至少有 1 名父母就业的 1431 户家庭进行了调查。总体而言，46%的家庭报告了 1 项或多项与儿童保育相关的就业变化。缺勤（21%）和改变工作时间表（27%）是报告的最常见变化。与单亲家庭相比，双亲家庭报告与儿童保育相关的就业变化的可能性显著降低。有全职父母的家庭报告与儿童保育相关的缺勤的可能性较小，但与没有全职父母的家庭相比，报告最近辞职的可能性较大。儿童有行为问题或严重慢性健康状况与许多与儿童保育相关的就业问题的两倍到三倍的可能性相关。
有慢性疾病或行为问题儿童的家庭中，与儿童保育相关的就业问题很常见。这些发现支持儿科医生和政策制定者努力实现更有利于父母的劳动条件的实施。
