Survey on Where Parents Look for and Find Information and How They Use Information When Selecting Child Care, United States, 2024 (ICPSR 39220)

Version Date: Aug 27, 2025

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39220.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2025-08-27]
  • V1 [2025-07-24] unpublished
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Alternate Title

CEPC

Summary

The main objective of the Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education (CEPC) Parent Survey was to collect nationally representative survey data to learn about:

  • Where parents look for and find information about child care and early education (CCEE)
  • How parents living in a household with young children assess the people, places, or sources that may offer CCEE information
  • What types of CCEE information parents look for
  • How parents use information to select CCEE
    •

    One of the goals of the survey was to gather information that may be used by child care Lead Agencies to inform their consumer education (CE) efforts. The CEPC Parent Survey aimed to expand the field's understanding of the types of information parents look for and where they get information. The information collected through the survey is descriptive and is not intended to assess the effectiveness or impact of CE strategies.

    Citation

    United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. Survey on Where Parents Look for and Find Information and How They Use Information When Selecting Child Care, United States, 2024. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-08-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39220.v2

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    Funding

    United States Department of Health and Human Services. Administration for Children and Families. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (Contract #HHSP233201500048I/75P00120F37019)

    Subject Terms

    Geographic Coverage

    Smallest Geographic Unit

    State

    Distributor(s)

    Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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    Time Period(s)

    2024

    Date of Collection

    2024-03-28 -- 2024-05-13

    Data Collection Notes

    1. Selected findings from the analyses of the Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education (CEPC) Parent Survey, along with insights from the broader CEPC project, can be found at: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/project/consumer-education-and-parental-choice-early-care-and-education-2020-2025.
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    Study Purpose

    The Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education (CEPC) Parent Survey aimed to address the following research questions:

  • Where do parents search for and find information about child care and early education (CCEE) options (e.g., family, friends, states' and territories' consumer education (CE))?
  • What types of information are parents searching for before making decisions about CCEE for their children?
  • How do parents evaluate the information they find or come across about possible CCEE options?
  • How do parents use the information they find or come across to inform the decisions they make about CCEE?
  • What characteristics of CCEE programs are most salient to their decision-making process?
  • What are key facilitators and barriers to parents' finding and/or using consumer information?

    • Study Design

    Sampled panelists were invited to take the survey using one of two contact modes: email and phone. Both response modes were available in English and Spanish. Panelists were invited to participate in the survey depending upon the contact modes they noted as preferred when they joined the AmeriSpeak Panel. Panelists who indicated that they prefer to complete surveys online received the initial survey invitation and reminders by email. Panelists who indicated that they prefer to complete surveys by phone received an initial phone call informing them of the new survey.

    Phone interviewers attempted to complete the "About your Household" section to confirm respondent eligibility after which interviewers continued to the rest of the questionnaire with confirmed eligible respondents on that initial call or scheduled an appointment for a future time. Interviewers made follow-up calls to respondents who did not complete the survey on the initial call. All sampled panelists were also able to access the survey at any time through the AmeriSpeak panelist portal.

    The data collection took place from March 28, 2024 to May 13, 2024. The data collection initially started with only 351 selected panelists. This allowed the team to monitor the survey and data for any potential errors. When none were found, an additional 3,162 selected panelists were invited on March 29, 2024, and the remaining 24,806 selected panelists by April 4, 2024. Data collection ended May 13, 2024. During data collection, the research team sent three reminder emails to the selected panelists with an online preference. Selected panelists with a phone preference were dialed throughout the survey administration window. Eligible respondents were offered the cash equivalent of $15 for completing this survey.

    Sample

    The sampling frame for the Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education (CEPC) Parent Survey was drawn from the AmeriSpeak Panel. Funded and operated by NORC, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population. The panel provided sample coverage of approximately 97 percent of the U.S. household population. The panel size was 54,001 panelists aged 13 and over residing in over 43,000 households. For the CEPC Parent Survey, adult panelists believed to have children up to age 6 (based on AmeriSpeak records) and panelists identified as potentially having children were invited. If there was more than one panelist living in the same household, one panelist was selected at random to participate.

    Three criteria were used to select the CEPC Parent Survey sample from NORC's AmeriSpeak Panel. Each panelist needed to satisfy only one of the following criteria to be invited to participate in the CEPC Parent Survey:

  • Panelists believed to be parents or legal guardians of at least one child aged 0-6
  • Any panelist aged 18-49 from different households
  • Panelists believed to be a parent or guardian of a child of any age

    • Time Method

    Cross-sectional

    Universe

    Parents or legal guardians (18 years or older) living in the United States with at least one child in their household aged 0-6 years old who is not yet in kindergarten.

    Unit(s) of Observation

    Individual

    Data Type(s)

    Mode of Data Collection

    Description of Variables

    The Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education (CEPC) Parent Survey is organized into six sections by overall topic:

  • About your Household: The respondent's household composition, including questions to determine eligibility for the full survey. Eligible respondents were given instructions to only think about their child(ren) under the age of 6 years, but not yet in kindergarten when answering the survey questions.
  • Finding Information about Child Care: Finding information about child care and ratings of various child care sources of information.
  • Types of Information about Child Care: The types of information parents may look for or find on child care.
  • Most Recent Decision about Child Care: The most recent decision about child care and early education (CCEE) that the family made, including timing, challenges, and perceived sufficiency of information to make the decision.
  • Child Care that your Household Uses: Current child care arrangements.
  • Other Information about your Family: Household characteristics including work/school schedules and income.
    •

    Additionally, the data and codebook in this study include variables regarding:

  • AmeriSpeak Panel Profile: Data collected when respondents joined the AmeriSpeak Panel. These data were collected prior to the CEPC Parent Survey.
  • American Community Survey (ACS): Community characteristic variables linked from the ACS at the community cluster level.
  • Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Policy Database: Data from the CCDF Policies Database, including rules for states' and territories' child care subsidy programs under the CCDF.
  • CEPC Coding of Consumer Education (CE) Information in State Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Plans and Websites: Data culled from the CEPC coding of CE information in State CCDF plans and websites, which included CE-related information in states' and territories' CCDF plans and CE websites.

    • Response Rates

  • Screener Completion Rate: 23.4 percent
  • Incidence/Eligibility Rate: 31.7 percent
  • Interview Completion Rate: 97 percent
  • Survey Completion Rate: 22.7 percent
  • Weighted Cumulative Response Rate: 4 percent

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    Original Release Date

    2025-07-24

    Version History

    2025-08-27 This collection was updated to change the year in the study title; there are no changes to the data since the last version.

    2025-07-24 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

    • Performed consistency checks.

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    Weight

    There is a single sampling weight variable in the data file: WEIGHTS. Applying WEIGHTS generates an estimate that is representative of the U.S. population of households with at least one child under the age of 6 not yet enrolled in kindergarten.

    Please refer to the Sampling Weights section of the User's Guide for additional information.

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    Notes

    • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

    CFDA logo

    This study is maintained and distributed by the Child and Family Data Archive (CFData). CFData hosts datasets about young children, their families and communities, and the programs that serve them. CFData is supported by Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), an office of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.