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From Latchkey Stereotypes Toward Self-Care Realities
Abstract
A tremendous surge of interest in school-age child care has arisen within the past few years. This includes state and federal efforts for legislation to support school-age child care, as well as community efforts to set up after-school programs and to organize telephone help services for children who spend time alone. Many of these efforts are based on the presumed negative consequences of the so-called latchkey arrangement. However, very little is known about the consequences of the latchkey arrangement for children’s functioning.
Many school-age children spend time in self-care (latchkey) arrangements while their parents are away from home. Analyses of data collected through a magazine-distributed questionnaire identified several variables that contribute to mothers' satisfaction with self-care arrangements. These variables can be subsumed under two general categories: (a) child's age and (b) the mother's and child's separate social networks. We discuss the implications for practitioners and policymakers.
This study examines the adaptation of children in self-care compared with children in adult-care to out-of-school relationship contexts and solitude. Thirty-six French children aged 9–11 years were interviewed about their out-of-school activities and responses to solitude. The theoretical framework integrates Weiss' (1974) notion of relational provisions and Valsiner's (1984, 1987) constraint theory to understand individual adaptation in the social and solitary contexts of self-care. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed complexity and variability of the structural organization and children's adaptation in self-care contexts. Although self-care children reported more activities outdoors alone than did adult-care children, the development of the capacity to be alone may protect children's psychological well-being. Moreover, the inherent structure of self-care, i.e., parental absence, demanded that children lead the promotion of their own development in self-care contexts. In a few extreme instances, children were indeed homeless in the afternoon.
This article delineates a three-stage process of reactions to social and economic changes that threaten traditional values. In the first stage, public and professional reactions are predominantly negative; in the second stage, predominantly ambivalent; and in the third stage, predominantly accepting. This three-stage process is used to analyze the reactions to increases in maternal employment and day care. A key issue for future investigation is whether the same process represents a predictable sequence of reactions to other social and economic changes that threaten traditional values.
Studied 108 5th grade children, of employed mothers, attending school in the black ghetto of North Philadelphia. The California Test of Personality, the California Short-Form Test of Mental Maturity, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and the Parent Behavior Inventory were administered. Other information was gathered from teachers and school and community records. 38 mothers were interviewed. Data reduction included t tests, chi-squares, and a cluster analysis. Results indicate that more girls than boys were unsupervised, and that these girls exhibited impoverished cognitive development. Full-time employment of the mother was a positive influence. Maternal quality, mother-child relationships, and maternal attitudes toward employment were also influential. Findings suggest a 2-variable theory as the explanation of the effects of maternal employment on children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews research and writings of childrearing authorities in the popular press on the effects of nonmaternal care on preschool children. The available data indicate that high-quality nonmaternal care does not appear to have adverse effects on the young child's maternal attachment, intellectual development, or social-emotional behavior. Child-care books and magazine articles appearing during the last 20 yrs have tended to present a more negative view of nonmaternal care. Between the 1960s and 1970s, however, a shift occurred in the direction of a more favorable attitude toward working mothers and nonmaternal care. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Maternal employment is now the modal pattern. This is an important social change. In evaluating the effects of maternal employment, other interrelated social changes must be considered: increased time available to mothers due to decrease in family size and required housework, psychological needs created for mothers by these and other changes which employment may fill, and new requirements for socializing children to fit the new adult roles. With these changes considered, recent research is reviewed to examine how maternal employment fits the needs of children at different developmental stages. In general, maternal employment seems well-suited to the needs of adolescents, appropriate for the emotional and cognitive development of daughters in both adolescence and middle childhood, but there are insufficient data for evaluating effects on infants and some evidence that middle-class sons of working mothers show lower academic performance. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Compared 26 4th-grade and 22 7th-grade self-care (latchkey) children with 26 4th-grade and 22 7th-grade matched children in adult care to investigate whether the latchkey arrangement has negative consequences for children. Ss were interviewed on demographic and childcare arrangement data and administered the Self-Esteem Inventory, the Personal Reaction Survey, and the Behavior Rating Form. There were no significant differences found between the 2 matched samples on any of the measures. Results suggest that the growing public and professional concern about the negative effects of self-care arrangements may not be warranted. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In a previous volume, Families as Learning Environments for Children, we presented a series of chapters that dealt with research programs on the role of families as learning environments for children. Those studies were based on empirical data and sought answers to basic research questions, with no explicit concern for the application of the results to practical problems. Rather, their purpose was to contribute primarily to conceptualization, research methodology, and psychological theory. Now, in this volume, we turn our attention to intervention-efforts to modify the way a family develops. As in our previous conference, the participants of the working conference on which the present volume is based are research scientists and scholars interested in application. This group is distinct from practitioners, however, whose primary focus is service; participants in this conference have as their primary interest research into the problems of processes of application. Applied professional issues concerning the lives of families come from many varied sources, from some that are distant and impersonal (e. g. , the law) to direct face-to-face efforts (educators, therapists). The variety of sources and types of applications are eloquent testimony to the degree to which families are subject to a host of societal forces whose implicit or explicit aim is to modify family functioning. For example, some educators may wish to alter family child-rearing patterns to enhance child development; the clinician seeks to help families come to terms and to cope with a schizophrenic child. The list can be extended.
It has been said often and much better by others that Ernest W. Burgess was a renaissance person. His interests were not highly specialized and focused, as found today among “great” sociologists and psychologists. To the contrary, his interests were varied; and as a person for all seasons, he was claimed by many disciplines.
The self-care (or latchkey) arrangement has emerged in the 1980s as a topic of strong interest to parents, practitioners, and policy makers. This essay reviews the major policy issues and questions about self-care. The following topics are covered: the meaning of self-care, consequences of self-care for children's development, policy implications, and resources for family life educators.
Many children of working parents regularly care for themselves after school. Questionable findings about the danger of children's self-care (latchkey) arrangements are being used in an effort to obtain public funding for after-school care. The use of this evidence poses a dilemma for feminists and others. Arguing that latchkey children are at risk may improve the chances of receiving funds for child care. But it could also lead to unintended negative consequences for women. Emphasizing the risks of self-care could result in greater social opposition to working mothers. From a feminist perspective, the best argument for after-school care would be one that focuses on the special needs and circumstances of working parents, and does not rely on suspect data that suggest negative consequences of self-care for children's development. Copyright 1989 by The Policy Studies Organization.
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