Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Child Care Self-Sufficiency Scale: Measuring Child Care Funding And Policy Generosity Across States, Karen Tvedt

Dissertations and Theses

Against the backdrop of welfare reform, this study examined the generosity of state child care programs with generosity being defined as the extent to which state funding and policies promote child care availability, affordability, and health and safety for low-income families. Despite variations in Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) implementation, no internally-consistent measure has existed that permits comparisons across the range of funding and policy indicators. This study addressed that gap by constructing a composite scale comprised of 12 indicators that were identified based on existing research and expert opinion to reflect key areas of state funding and policy …