Each month, we select up to ten publications from those that have recently been entered into the Literature Database.

A year ago, there were approximately 6,900 citations in the Literature Database. As of December 2006, we now have over 8,150 citations.

Direct link to the Sloan Literature Update articles in the Literature Database.

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Global Perspectives - Albanese, P. (2006). Small town, big benefits: The ripple effect of $7/day child care. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology/La Revue Canadienne de Sociologie et d'Anthropologie, 43(2), 125-140.
As of June 2000, there is a network of child care agencies established by the Quebec government that provides child care for children aged 0-12 for just $7.00 per day. As of 2006, over 168,000 children are covered by the program. This paper assesses the impact of this child care by interviewing sixteen mothers and seventeen child care providers. All mothers believed the child care to be a necessity for them to work or study and beneficial to their children in terms of development and learning social skills. Several mothers indicated that the child care had improved domestic relations, and some stated that the program kept them in Quebec, which is a benefit, as the population had been declining.

Cochi Ficano, C.K. (2006). Child-care market mechanisms: Does policy affect the quantity of care? Social Service Review, 80(3), 453-484.
This article examines how local formal child care quantity responded to United States policy between 1990 and 2000. During this time period, positive economic conditions and welfare reform legislation led to increased labor force participation of mothers of young children. Findings indicate an expansion in child care policy, but the expansion of child care quantity varied across regions of the country. Furthermore, market and policy forces have different effects upon communities according to location and economic condition. Rural and low income communities are more sensitive to policy interventions than their urban and more affluent counterparts. An expansion of child care spending expands the quantity of child care in rural and poorer areas three times more than the expansion in urban, affluent areas.

Global Perspectives - Doucet, A. (2006). ‘Estrogen-filled worlds’: Fathers as primary caregivers and embodiment. The Sociological Review, 54(4), 696-716.
The author interviewed 118 Canadian fathers who identify as primary caregivers of their children, along with fourteen couples in which the father stays at home to care for children, to investigate the connections between fatherhood, child care and embodiment. The emphasis is on the ways in which men speak about their physical movements with their children. The fathers speak of their embodiment through discussion of physical play, outdoor activities, sports and risk-taking and their experiences as fathers being fundamentally different from mothers due to perceived embodiment differences. Findings indicate that fathers speak of themselves as embodied subjects when discussing their parenting, that embodiment has moral dimensions, particularly when fathers care for the children of others, who may be disturbed by the presence of a male caretaker, and that sometimes physical bodies are significant in caretaking situations, but sometimes they are not.

Gordon, R.A. & Hognas, R.S. (2006). The best laid plans: Expectations, preferences, and stability of child care arrangements. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(5), 373-393.

Using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, the authors consider whether an early, extensive search for child care as well as a match between the type of care desired and the type used predicts stability within the arrangement. The survey queried 1,364 mothers with newborns and reinterviewed 1,234 of these mothers twelve months later. Results suggest that early planning for child care is more likely to result in a match in preferred and actual care situations; type of care preferred and the presence of adults in the home besides the spouse or partner also affected the matching process positively. Mothers who were able to procure their preferred type of care were less likely to change child-care arrangements during their child’s first year.

Hickman, L.N. (2006). Who should care for our children?: The effects of home versus center care on child cognition and social adjustment. Journal of Family Issues, 27(5), 652-684.
This paper challenges previous assumptions that children who are cared for in centers experience cognitive benefits over children cared for by their parents at home. Using longitudinal analysis on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Cohort, 1998-1999, which collected data on 21,000 children, the author finds that the cognitive benefits found in children cared for at centers disappears once the children enter kindergarten or first grade. Past research on this topic and its limitations are discussed.

Kimmel, J. (2006). Child care, female employment, and economic growth. Community Development, 37(2), 71-85.

The author considers the linkages between child care, female employment, and economic growth using the National Survey of America’s Families and the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The report details the manner in which parents choose care options for their children, the roles of cost, family income and children’s ages in making care choices as well as employment decisions, and discusses the implications for policy makers. Recommendations for advancing workforce retention through work-family legislation are made.

Global Perspectives - Crompton, R. (2006). Employment and the family: The reconfiguration of work and family life in contemporary societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Table of Contents: 1.Understanding change in employment, family and gender relations -- 2. Caring and working -- 3. Women, men, organisations and careers -- 4. Work-life articulation, working hours and work-life policies -- 5. States, families and work-life articulation -- 6. Households, domestic work, market work and happiness -- 7. Class, family choices and women's employment -- 8. Conclusions.

Golden, T.D., Veiga, J.F., & Simsek, Z. (2006). Telecommuting’s differential impact on work-family conflict: Is there no place like home? Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(6), 1340-1350.

This report examines the impact of telecommuting on work-to-family conflict as well as family-to-work conflict. The authors surveyed 454 professional-level employees who work both in an office and at home on a regular basis. Findings suggest that workers who use such an arrangement lower their work-to-family conflict, but intensify their family-to-work conflict. The impacts of job autonomy, scheduling flexibility and size of household are explored as well.

Devine, C.M., Jastran, M., Jabs, J., Wethington, E., Farell, T.J., & Bisogni, C.A. (2006). “A lot of sacrifices:” Work-family spillover and the food choice coping strategies of low-wage employed parents. Social Sciences & Medicine, 63, 2591-2603.

This research investigates how low-wage employed parents’ work-family spillover affects their food choice coping strategies. Participants were 69 mothers and fathers from a Northeast U.S. city who worked at least twenty hours per week in service, clerical, retail sales and production jobs. Findings reveal that negative spillover from work to family influenced food choice strategies. In many cases, the strategies were not effective and sometimes led to guilt and dissatisfaction. Suggestions for food assistance policy makers are offered.