Skip to main content
Log in

Immigrants Families and Childcare Preferences: Do Immigrants’ Cultures Influence Their Childcare Decisions?

  • Published:
Early Childhood Education Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The author examines childcare preferences of African immigrant parents living in the United States. Based on interviews with eighteen parents with preschool-aged children and working within Bryman, Lewis-Beck, and Liao’s (2004) narrative inquiry, the author demonstrates that although many of the African immigrants surveyed for the study preferred family members to take care of their children in their own homes to instill African cultural identity in their children, the majority of their children were in childcare centers. The author demonstrates further that although putting children in childcare centers is not their topmost choice, in spite of their precarious financial situation, and despite the high cost of putting children in childcare centers, the immigrants were still happy to put their children in childcare centers because of their busy schedules. The immigrants’ collective nature of child upbringing contributed to their choice. The author recommends that centers must take the immigrants’ culture into consideration during their operations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Brandon (2002) uses 1989–1998 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation.

References

  • Bryman, A., Lewis-Beck, M. S., & Liao, T. F. (Eds.) (2004). The Sage encyclopedia of social science research methods (Vol. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

  • Brandon, P. (2002). The childcare arrangements of preschool children in immigrant families in the United States. 2002. (Working Paper Series). New York: Foundation for Child Development

  • Doob L. W. (1965). Psychology. In R. A. Lystad (Ed.), The African world: A survey of social research. Praeger, New York, pp. 373–415

    Google Scholar 

  • Herr J. (1998). Working with young children. The Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc, Tinley Park, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews H., Ewen D. (2006). Reaching all children? Understanding early care and education participation among immigrant families. Center for Law And Social Policy, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • National Institute for Early Education Research. (2005). Important Predictors of Early Education and Care. http://nieer.org/resources/facts/index.php?FastFactID = 9

  • Urban Institute. (2002). National Survey of America’s Families. Unpublished Document. http://www.urban.org/center/anf

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cecilia Sem Obeng.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Obeng, C.S. Immigrants Families and Childcare Preferences: Do Immigrants’ Cultures Influence Their Childcare Decisions?. Early Childhood Educ J 34, 259–264 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-006-0132-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-006-0132-9

Keywords

Navigation