Survey on Where Parents Look for and Find Information and How They Use Information When Selecting Child Care, United States, 2020-2025 (ICPSR 39220)
Version Date: Jul 24, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for 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.v1
Version V1
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Summary View help for 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:
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.
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Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
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State
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The Consumer Education and Parental Choice in Early Care and Education (CEPC) Parent Survey aimed to address the following research questions:
Study Design View help for 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 View help for 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:
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for 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 View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for 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:
Additionally, the data and codebook in this study includes variables regarding:
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2025-07-24
Version History View help for Version History
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.
Weight View help for 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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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.