An exploration of parental preferences for child care services in Canada

ABSTRACT

This article explores parental preferences for child care service providers according to parents' high/low-income status. While government child care assistance programs are intended to support low-income parents, parents are challenged to find desirable service options. Multisource pilot research suggested distinct attributes and levels of parents' preferences: staff, facilities, fees, programs, and convenience. Data were collected from 152 parents using 13 child care facilities in Canada, and were analyzed using conjoint analysis. Results suggest that consumer preferences can be explained by these attributes, and that the preferences of low-income parents differed from those of high-income parents, particularly regarding price and convenience.

KEYWORDS:

• Child care
• government assistance program
• high vs low incomes
• parental preferences

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by Faculty of Business Administration, University of New Brunswick. The authors wish to thank Elliot Thompson for his assistance with data collection, as well as Patrick Bruning and Eric Feunekes for the comments on an earlier version of the article.