Integrating family and child data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort with contextual data from the Census, this study examined associations among maternal employment, aspects of communities related to child care supply and demand, and the early care and education arrangements of 4-year-olds in Mexican-origin, black, and white families. Children with employed mothers were more likely to be in informal care arrangements than in early childhood education, regardless of racial/ethnic background. For children in Mexican-origin families, selection into informal care over early childhood education was more likely in zip codes with greater demand for care as measured by higher female employment. Utilization of parent care versus early childhood education was also more likely for children in Mexican-origin and black families in zip codes with higher female employment. Constraints associated with maternal employment thus hindered children from enrolling in early childhood education, and community contexts posed challenges for some groups.

Mexican-origin families face complex ethnic and immigration-based barriers to enrollment in early childhood education programs. As such, reducing barriers to enrollment for this population requires a better understanding of how Mexican-origin families work with, against, or around both general and group-specific constraints on educational opportunities. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study tailored broad social theory to the experience of Mexican-origin families to examine associations between human capital considerations and early childhood education enrollment within this population. Results supported the hypothesis that human capital considerations would be associated with early childhood care and education and provide limited evidence for the expectation that this link would be stronger for Mexican-origin families.

Children of Mexican origin are under-enrolled in early childhood education programs relative to Black and White children, which is problematic given the potential benefits of early childhood education. o better understand this under-enrollment in ways that can inform efforts to change it in the future, this study examined how utilization of early care and education programs varied among Mexican-origin families according to the community contexts where they lived. Integrating data on Mexican-origin children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (n = 1,100) with community data from the U.S. Census Bureau, logistic regressions revealed that the odds of enrollment in early care and education programs among Mexican-origin children increased as the supply of childcare centers in their counties increased. Holding childcare center supply constant, their enrollment also increased as the percent of co-ethnic Latinos/as in the county increased, especially for children from the least acculturated Mexican-origin families. Overall, these results suggest that ethnic enclaves might link Mexican-origin families to early childhood care and education programs for their children and that this role might be most important for families least likely to be connected to U.S. institutions.

Integrating family and child data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort with contextual data from the Census, this study examined associations among maternal employment, aspects of communities related to child care supply and demand, and the early care and education arrangements of 4-year-olds in Mexican-origin, black, and white families. Children with employed mothers were more likely to be in informal care arrangements than in early childhood education, regardless of racial/ethnic background. For children in Mexican-origin families, selection into informal care over early childhood education was more likely in zip codes with greater demand for care as measured by higher female employment. Utilization of parent care versus early childhood education was also more likely for children in Mexican-origin and black families in zip codes with higher female employment. Constraints associated with maternal employment thus hindered children from enrolling in early childhood education, and community contexts posed challenges for some groups.

Mexican-origin families face complex ethnic and immigration-based barriers to enrollment in early childhood education programs. As such, reducing barriers to enrollment for this population requires a better understanding of how Mexican-origin families work with, against, or around both general and group-specific constraints on educational opportunities. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study tailored broad social theory to the experience of Mexican-origin families to examine associations between human capital considerations and early childhood education enrollment within this population. Results supported the hypothesis that human capital considerations would be associated with early childhood care and education and provide limited evidence for the expectation that this link would be stronger for Mexican-origin families.