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Child-Care Usage and Access Challenges during COVID-19 and the Economic Recovery. Issue Brief. 2025-1

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Child-Care Usage and Access Challenges during COVID-19 and the Economic Recovery. Issue Brief. 2025-1
Language: English
Authors: Sarah Savage, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 2025.
Availability: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. P.O. Box 55882, Boston, MA 02205. Tel: 617-973-3000; Tel: 617-973-3397; e-mail: boston.library@bos.frb.org; Web site: https://www.bostonfed.org/
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 29
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Reports - Research
Descriptors: COVID-19, Pandemics, Child Care, Supply and Demand, Mothers, Socioeconomic Status, Place of Residence, Parent Attitudes, Employment Level, Costs, Use Studies
Geographic Terms: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and deepened constraints on the child-care market that make accessing child care challenging. Inaccessible child care can be a barrier to work, with implications for parents' labor force participation. While much is known about the impact of the pandemic on child-care providers and parents who suddenly lost access, less is known about the nuance of access challenges and how they varied. In this brief, I examine child-care demand and access at different stages of the pandemic to determine how the supply challenges induced by the pandemic affected families' ability to meet their care needs and whether this varied in meaningful ways. Using survey data collected from nearly 2,100 New England mothers with at least one child under the age of 6 between February 2022 and April 2022, I explore two types of child-care access challenges. The first includes instances of "foregoing needed care." This is based on recollections, experiences, and expectations at different stages of the pandemic. The second type is limited to mothers who used care and includes "using less care than needed" at the time of the survey. I examine usage and access challenges by state of residence and demographics. At all stages, I find a greater tendency to "forego needed care" among mothers with fewer economic advantages, most notably among lower-income mothers and mothers who were unemployed or outside the labor force. A similar pattern emerges when looking at which mothers were more likely to report "using less care than needed", though this was not linear by income: moderate-income mothers who used care were more likely to use less care than needed than either lower- or higher-income mothers who used care.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: ED679442
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:The COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and deepened constraints on the child-care market that make accessing child care challenging. Inaccessible child care can be a barrier to work, with implications for parents' labor force participation. While much is known about the impact of the pandemic on child-care providers and parents who suddenly lost access, less is known about the nuance of access challenges and how they varied. In this brief, I examine child-care demand and access at different stages of the pandemic to determine how the supply challenges induced by the pandemic affected families' ability to meet their care needs and whether this varied in meaningful ways. Using survey data collected from nearly 2,100 New England mothers with at least one child under the age of 6 between February 2022 and April 2022, I explore two types of child-care access challenges. The first includes instances of "foregoing needed care." This is based on recollections, experiences, and expectations at different stages of the pandemic. The second type is limited to mothers who used care and includes "using less care than needed" at the time of the survey. I examine usage and access challenges by state of residence and demographics. At all stages, I find a greater tendency to "forego needed care" among mothers with fewer economic advantages, most notably among lower-income mothers and mothers who were unemployed or outside the labor force. A similar pattern emerges when looking at which mothers were more likely to report "using less care than needed", though this was not linear by income: moderate-income mothers who used care were more likely to use less care than needed than either lower- or higher-income mothers who used care.