Manpower
Training
and Child-Development
Services
Jon Fielding, M.D., M.P.H., Hal Timmons, M.S.W., and Paul Batalden, M.D.
From the J)irision ofPeer Review, Bureau ofQuality Assurance, and the Bureau ofCamnninity Health Services, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Office of the t)irector, Job Corps, Department of
Labor
ABSTRACT. Making quality child-development services available for children of mothers in one vocational training
program significantly improved the mothers’ performances.
On the average, mothers with children receiving these
ser-vices stayed in the Job Corps longer and more frequently completed their vocational training program. Since longer length of stay and program completion show a positive
cor-relation with a better chance of placement and higher
mi-tial wage, the new Job Corps program improves a mother’s potential for economic self-sufficiency. In addition, mothers
in the program are able to learn how to better understand their children and provide for their needs. Nonresident
mothers in the new mother-and-child program perforlned
as well as resident mothers. This similarity points towards the widespread potential for initiating similar programs in many vocational training and educational settings. If, as in the Job Corps program, providing quality child-care
ar-rangements for mothers in such settings as high schools,
colleges, other manpower training programs, prisons, and
places of employment can improve the mother’s general
motivation, enhance her earning capacity, and improve her ability to be a good mother, then dollars invested in these
programs will show a high return. Pediatrics, 55:279, 1975,
I)AY CARE, CHILI) I)EvEL0PMENT, MANPOWER TRAININ(;, WORK-IN(; MOTHERS.
The most recent annual Manpower Report pre-pared by the Department of Labor’ underscored increasing work participation among younger women. The steepest rise in work propensity has been among women with children under 3. In the period from 1960 to 1972, their labor force partic-ipation rate increased about 75%, from 15.3% to 26.9%. One careful projection calls for a greater than 40% increase during the present decade in the number of working mothers with children under 52
Solo mothers are significantly better off edo-nomically if they participate in the labor force. In 1971 the median annual income of families with children where the father was absent but the mother worked was $5,500, in contrast to $3,230 if the mother was not working.3
For young women with children, the two most frequent deterrents to securing satisfactory em-ployment are (1) lack of skills necessary for avail-able jobs and (2) lack of child-care facilities.
This paper reports a special Job Corps program designed to respond to two interrelated needs: (1) The need on the part of many young mothers for remedial basic education and vocational training leading to satisfactory employment and economic self-sufficiency and (2) the need on the part of the children of these mothers for high-quality devel-opment services that help them achieve their psy-chosocial potential.
(Received March 5; revision accepted for publication June 19, 1974.)
The views expressed in this paper are those of the individu-al authors and not necessarily those of the Job Corps, the l)epartment of Labor, the Bureau of Community health Services, the Bureau of Quality Assurance, or the Depart-ment of Health, Education, and Welfare.
A1)DRESS FOR REPRINTS: (J.F.) Bureau of Quality
Young mothers from economically disadvantaged family backgrounds have particular difficulty, be-cause as a group they are least likely to have req-uisite basic educational skills (i.e., English and mathematics) or appropriate vocational training. Not infrequently young mothers who have not yet reached adulthood do not possess the social skills and maturity required for successful adjustment to the world of work. Absence of readily available and affordable child-care services poses a fre-quent barrier to mothers desirous of entering the labor force. A recent national survey estimated
that
750,000
low- and moderate-income mothersare not working because they cannot find satisfac-tory child care.4
Job Corps experience has corroborated that a large number of young mothers need and are seek-ing manpower training and that there is a lack of adequate child-care arrangements which would permit them to benefit from this training. Moth-ers enrolled in the Job Corps have had frequent absences and sometimes have left the training program altogether due to the unreliability of ar-rangements for their children’s care. The high dropout rate for mothers has proven costly to the Job Corps and has contributed to continued feel-ings of failure and despair on the part of the moth-ers. In addition, many of the child-care settings in which Job Corps mothers have placed their chil-dren do not provide experiences that maximize the children’s development.
MOTHER-AND-CHILD PROGRAM
In response to these concerns, the Job Corps in-itiated a demonstration project to assess the im-pact of offering high-quality child-development services to mothers enrolled in its Atlanta Resi-dential Manpower Center (ARMC). The services of the project were provided at no cost to the par-ticipants.
Located in a residential section of west Atlanta, the ARMC provides basic education; vocational training in nursing, clerical and business skills, or cosmetology; personal and vocational counseling; coordinated health care; and recreational and other supportive services to all enrollees, 16 to 21 years old, all female, and from low-income fami-lies in the greater Atlanta area. At any one time there are 215 enrollees who live at the center and 135 nonresident enrollees. After a one-week orientation to the center, corpswomen, most of whom have not completed high school, are as-signed to educational classes emphasizing reading and mathematics, and they are encouraged to work towards a high-school-equivalency diploma.
To accommodate enrollees with children, 25
dormitory rooms at this manpower center were converted to single-family apartments. A child-development center with a capacity of 50 chil-dren, ages 6 months to 6 years, was fashioned out of 3,618 sq ft of renovated interior space. Adjacent outside space was equipped for outdoor play. An experienced staff was hired and the program for each age group developed with the aid of experts in child development and early childhood educa-tion.
The child-development center operates Mon-day through Friday, 52 weeks per year. Children generally arrive at 7:45 and leave the center with their mothers for a one-hour lunch period at 11:30 or 11:45. They are picked up between 4:00 and 4:30. The staff to child ratio ranged from 1:4 for infants to 1 :8 for 5- and 6-year-olds.
Counseling concerning personal and family problems is available to mothers in the program, as it is to all Job Corps enrollees. Each mother has regularly scheduled individual conferences with her counselor and the day-care staff, supplement-ed by group discussions with a child psychologist. Comprehensive health care routinely offered to all Job Corps enrollees was extended to children in the program, and an in-service training pro-gram for the child-care-center staff was devel-oped. A parenting-skills program was initiated for all enrollees with the goal of helping both mothers and nonmothers to become more confident and capable in the physical and emotional care of children.#{176} Classes are held in budgeting, nutri-tion, food preparation, child-health-care needs, and general child care. Mothers are also taken to see other child-care centers and encouraged to discuss what they should look for in deciding on child-care arrangements after leaving the Job Corps.
During the first year of operation, 87 mothers with a total of 1 10 children participated in the demonstration program. Twenty-two percent of the mothers were married, 65% had not graduated from high school, and 66% were between the ages of 16 and 19. The racial distribution was 77% black and 23% white. Of the 110 children, 20 were between 6 months and 1 year, 63 were between 1 and 3 years, and 27 were between 3 and 6 years.
When the program commenced, mothers al-ready living at the ARMC were given the first chance to participate. The remainder of available places were taken by children of nonresident mothers. Thereafter, program openings were
filled on a first-come-first-served basis from a long waiting list of mothers who were candidates for enrollment. Fifty-eight of those mothers enrolling in the new program during its first year indicated that their interest derived primarily from the lack of acceptable alternative child-care arrange-ments.
EVALUATION METHODS
An evaluation of the program was conducted 12 months after it began.t The evaluation focused on an assessment of the impact of the new program on the performance in the Job Corps of mothers enrolled during the first 12 months of operation. Because of the relatively short average length of stay of children in the child-development center,
it was not possible to assess objectively the effects of the program on these children’s growth and de-velopment. However, a panel of child-develop-ment experts who periodically observed the pro-gram in operation felt that the children were re-ceiving a very high quality
development-promot-ing experience.
To assess the impact of the new program on the performance of mothers in the Job Corps it was decided to match mothers in the program (here-after called program mothers or group 1) with Job Corps mothers not in the program (i.e., mothers who had other child-care arrangements; these nonprogram mothers constituted group 2) and with Job Corps enrollees who did not have chil-dren (these nonmothers comprised group 3). The decision to employ matched rather than random-ized control groups was primarily based on the desire to preclude differences in program perfor-mance between the study and control groups based on characteristics known to influence Job Corps performance. For example, corps members from rural areas at some centers tend to stay long-er in the Job Corps than do those from urban backgrounds. Residency at the center, race, and reading level at time of entry into the Job Corps were also considered possible confounding vari-ables and therefore matching was performed based on these three parameters and urban vs. rural background. The comparability of matched groups was then assessed with respect to other biographic variables to attempt to identify other possible causes of differing performance in the Job Corps among these groups. Since mothers were not selected into the mother-and-child program at random but on the basis of need for child-care
ser-tlnformation concerning length of stay in the Job Corps was expanded by updating 6 months and 18 months later.
vices, it is not certain that those selected were en-tirely representative of all mothers in the Job Corps. Therefore mothers chosen to participate in the program were compared on the basis of eight biographic characteristics to identify possible dif-ferences that could affect performance in the Job Corps. Also, to ensure that any differences in per-formance between the program mothers and the matched controls were due to the presence of the new program at the ARMC, the program moth-ers’ performance was also compared to the perfor-mance of all mothers with other child-care ar-rangements and with all nonmothers.
Information was also obtained by interviewing program mothers about their perceptions of the mother-and-child program. Careful records of all expenditures were maintained during the first year of operation and the cost per child year cal-culated.
Neither the Job Corps enrollees nor the staff were aware that this statistical study of program performance was being undertaken until one year after it was initiated.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The goals of the study were: (1) to evaluate the effect of the provision of child-care services on the performance of mothers in the Job Corps (2) to relate any demonstrated effect to sociological and demographic variables (3) to assess the mother’s opinion of the child care provided (4) to deter-mine the cost of the program and to relate these to the costs of other high-quality child-development programs.
Characteristic
Group
Total No. Total % P
1 2#{176} 3#{176}
Residence statust NS
Resident 52% 49% 55% 131 52.2
Nonresident 48% 51% 45% 120 47.8
No. 88 80 83 251
Prior home locationt NS
Atlanta 83% 78% 83% 203 81.2
Other 17% 22% 17% 47 18.8
No. 87 80 83 250
Welfare status (at entry) .001
Receiving 45% 38% 12% 79 31.6
Not receiving 55% 62% 88% 171 68.4
No. 87 80 83 250
Racet NS
White 23% 21% 24% 57 22.7
Black 77% 79% 76% 194 77.3
No. 88 &) 83 251
Marital status .001
Single 62% 66% 88% 179 71.6
Married 22% 23% 4% 41 16.4
Widowed 0% 0% 0% 0 0.0
Divorced 7% 3% 2% 10 4.0
Separated 9% 8% 6% 20 8.0
No. 87 80 83 250
Entering reading scoret NS
(RJS1) (25 possible items)
0 to 9 10% 9% 7% 22 8.8
10 to 17 48% 48% 53% 124 49.4
18 to 25 42% 43% 40% 105 41.8
No. 88 80 83 251
Average score 16.0 16.0 15.9
Highest school grade <.05
4 to 9 37% 43% 29% 90 36.0
10 to 11 30% 31% 28% 74 29.6
12+ 33% 26% 43% 86 34.4
No. 87 80 83 250
Average grade completed 10.2 9.8 10.5 <.05
Age at entrance <.01
16 to 17 18% 19% 32% 57 22.8
18 to 19 38% 46% 49% 110 44.0
20+ 44% 35% 19% 83 33.2
No. 88
18.7
80 18.7
82 18.2
250
NS Average entry age
#{176}Thetotal populations of the nonprogram mothers and nonmothers were
tCharacteristics on which groups were matched.
153 and 399 respectively. TABLE I
SUMMARY OF BIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MATCHED GROUPS OF ENROLLEES#{176}
groupings than matched mothers (groups 1 and 2) at time of entry, there was not a significant differ-ence between the average age of entry for each group. In summary there are no apparent differ-ences among key biographic indicators that would predispose program mothers to achieve a superior performance.
Length of stay was selected as the best
indica-tor of the overall benefit of the Job Corps pro-gram because experience has demonstrated that the potential of this manpower training program increases with the amount of time spent at a Job Corps center. There is a direct positive correla-tion in the Job Corps between length of stay and job-placement rate and initial wages (Fig. 1
0Differences between program mothers and nonprogram
mothers were significant at the .001 level and differences between program mothers and nonmothers significant at the .01 level.
95
90
85
80
75
70
2.5
2.5
2.4
2.3
2.2
2.1
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
LENGTHcF STAYIN tfl{rHS
FIG. 1. Length of stay vs. rate of placement for all Job Corps enrollees for fiscal year 1973.
[213Th IT STAYIN i’DffHS
FIG. 2. Length of stay vs. initial wage for all Job Corps en-rollees for fiscal year 1973.
2.0
1.8
TABLE II 100
AVERAGE LENGTHS OF STAY FOR MATCHED GRoups#{176}
Program Mothers
(Group 1)
Nonprogram Mothers
(Group 2)
Nonmothers (Group 3)
342 days 222 days 247 days
(No.
=
79) (No.=
83) (No. = 79)Lengths of stay were computed for the three matched groups (1, 2, and 3) in calendar days from entry to termination. In those cases where the corpswomen were still active in the program on the last day of the 18th month after the program was initiated, length of stay was measured from entry through this date.
For matched enrollees (Table II), lengths of stay were 342 days for program mothers, 222 days for nonprogram mothers, and 247 days for non-mothers. These differences are highly significant
(P< .01). Program mothers have had the longest length of stay and thus the best opportunity to benefit from the Job Corps experience (Table II).
Attempts were made to determine whether the overall superior performance of program mothers was independent of a number of characteristics which had appeared to have predictive value for performance in other Job Corps settings. Among the variables explored were residential status and age at entry. There were no significant differ-ences in average length of stay between residents (257 days) and nonresidents (283 days) for the three matched groups combined (Table III) or within any of the groups, indicating that residen-tial status is not an essential element in the success of the program for mothers and children.
Although younger corpswomen at the ARMC generally tend to have a significantly shorter length of stay (Table IV), and this holds equally true for the combined matched groups, among program mothers the overall differences among age groups are not significant (Table V). Thus, the influence of the program appears to reverse the tendency of younger corpswomen (16- and 17-year-olds as a group) to have a shorter length of stay.
In summary, program mothers stay
sjgnifj-*The results indicated in Tables II and III are adjusted to eliminate differences related to varying age range clistribu-tions in the three matched groups.
TABLE III
AVERAGE LENGTHS OF STAY BY RESIDENCE FOR MATCHED
GROUPS 1, 2, AND 3#{176}
Reridents Nonresidents
257 days 283 days
(No. = 125) (No.
=
116)#{176}Differences were not significant.
TABLE IV
AVERAGE LENGTHS OF STAY BY AGE
Combined
All ARMC Matched Samples
Age Enrollees (Groups 1, 2, and 3)
16 & 17 160 days#{176} 183 days#{176}
(No.
=
221) (No. 54)18+ 282 days 295 days
(No.
=
405) (No.=
187)#{176}Differences significant at the .001 level.
TABLE V
AVERAGE LENGTHS OF STAY BY AGE FOR MATCHED GROUPS
Age
Group
1 2 3
16 & 17 306 days#{176} (No.
=
14)129 days#{176} (No.
=
14)147 dayst (No.
=
26)18 + 350 days
(No.
=
65)241 days (No.
=
69)298 days (No.
=
53)#{176}Differences not significant.
Differences significant at the .01 level.
to increase greatly chances that mothers with children will benefit from the Job Corps.
Reasons for termination were tabulated for all corpswomen in the three matched groups who were no longer in the ARMC program as of the end of the 18th month of the program. Categories included Completion, Resignation, AWOL Dis-charge, Administrative Discharge, Disciplinary Discharge, and Medical Discharge. Due to the relatively small numbers of terminations in these last three categories, these were consolidated in
Noncompletion does not indicate nonreadiness for placement. Enrollees who do not finish still enjoy a high placement rate though, as Figures 1 and 2 indicate, their placement and initial wage rates are lower than the rates of
those who complete the program.
most tables and collectively termed “Other.” This represents the early experience of the ARMC. Data for current enrollees suggest a much higher completion rate. Again attempts were made to re-late the differences in group’s performance to so-cial and demographic variables. Findings were:
(1) Participation in the mother-and-child pro-gram significantly improves chances of complet-ing training at the ARMC (Table VI). Forty-four percent of program mothers finished, compared with 17% of matched nonprogram mothers, and
25% of matched nonmothers. The difference is significant with P<.001.
(2) Residential status does not significantly af-fect completion rates among the different groups at the ARMC (Table VII).
(3) Among all three matched groups, a higher percentage of black than white enrollees corn-pleted the program. However, the number of white nonprograrn mothers in group 2 and white nonmothers in group 3 who completed the pro-gram is too small for statistical comparison of rea-sons for termination among groups with respect to race.
(4) No reason for noncompletion is overrep-presented or underrepresented in any of the three matched groups (Table VI) or between residents and nonresidents.
(5) When reasons for termination are adjusted for all three groups by city size, marital status, highest school grade, welfare status, entry reading score, and age, performance of the program moth-ers remains superior.
Wherever the performance of program moth-ers was compared to that of matched nonprogram mothers and matched nomnothers, it was also compared to the performance of all nonprograrn mothers and nonmothers. In all cases differences between the performance of program mothers and the two matched groups was similarly true for program mothers versus the entire group of non-program mothers and nonmothers from which matching groups 2 and 3 were selected.
In summary, comparison of reasons for termi-nation using matched groups demonstrates that program mothers have the most positive record and are more likely than the other groups to corn-plete their ARMC training.
TABLE VI
REASONS FOR TERMINATION
#{176}Forgroup 1, differences for Completion, Resignation, and AWOL Discharge were significant at the .001 level.
tAjginistrative Discharge, Disciplinary Discharge,
Med-ical Discharge.
TABLE VII
COMPLETION BY RESIDENTIAL STATUS
#{176}Differences were not significant.
SUMMARY of this model to numerous nonresidential
voca-tional-traiing programs and many educational settings. However, other studies are necessary to validate these observations for other settings.
In interviews conducted after the first year of the project, most program mothers felt that the parenting-skills courses and significant interac-tion with the day-care staff contributed to their ability to provide for the physical and emotional care of their children. Among frequently cited skills they felt they had acquired through partici-pation in the program were: how to play with children, how to help children learn, understand-ing why children are sometimes bad, how to take care of sick children, how to prepare healthy foods for children, and how to prepare a budget. The cost of the child-development center pro-gram during the first year of operation was
$124,705 or $2,628 per child year. When rental costs and the 13% for the contractor’s overhead and fee were added, the total cost was $47,617 or
$2,952
per child year. This cost is high compared to that of some forms of child care, but is in the ex-pected range for quality child-development cen-ters, especially when infants and toddlers corn-prise a large percentage of the total enrollment(83 of the 110 children entering in the first year were less than 3 years of age).
Ideally one would like to be able to pair the costs of the demonstration program with the ben-efits to derive a cost-to-benefit ratio. Although a cost-to-benefit analysis would permit more in-formed decision-making concerning the advisabil-ity of replicating this programmatic model, it is impossible to translate into dollars its full benefits to mothers, children, and society in general. How-ever, if one looks at benefits strictly from the viewpoint of investment of Federal dollars, it
seems clear that there is signfficant return on dol-lars invested in the program. Since participation in the demonstration program increases the chance that a mother will complete her Job Corps training and find satisfactory employment, partic-ipation decreases the chances that a mother will be required to rely on Aid to Families with De-pendent Children and other public assistance
pro-grams. Increased length of stay by Job Corps
mothers also reduces the recruitment, transporta-tion, clothing, and other costs associated with turnover of Job Corps enrollees.
It is unfortunate that when mothers in the new
J
ob Corps program leave they are once again faced with difficulties in securing affordable, con-venient, high-quality child care. While many mothers find it satisfactory to leave their children with relatives or friends, 75% of the programGroups
Reason 10 2 3
Completion 35 (44%)
(P= .001)
14 (17%) 20 (25%)
Resignation AWOL Discharge 14 (18%) 27 (34%) 19 (23%) 41 (50%) 26 (33%) 29 (37%)
Othert 3 (4%) 8 (10%) 4 (5%)
No. 79 82 79
Status
Group
1 2 3
Residents 54% 57% 55%
Nonresidents 46% 43% 45%
Total 100% 100% 100%
No. 35 14 20
mothers responded on a questionnaire that they would rather have their child cared for in a com-prehensive child-care center. In some cases there are no options for the mother except to abandon, at least temporarily, the hope of economic self-sufficiency and remain at home with her children. The mother, whose goal was economic
self-suffi-ciency, is left with a loss of self-respect and a sense
of failure and hopelessness.
It is not possible for us to continue the study beyond the term described in this paper. Al-though the study was discontinued, the program has remained. There is a strong need for longer-term studies on the effects of high-quality devel-opment services on children’s growth and devel-opment and on parents’ social adjustment and em-ployment,
corn-pleted their vocational training program. Since longer length of stay and program completion show a positive correlation with a better chance of placement and higher initial wage, the new Job Corps program improves a mother’s potential for economic self-sufficiency. In addition, mothers in the program are able tO learn how to better un-derstand their children and provide for their needs. Nonresident mothers in the new mother-and-child program performed as well as tesident mothers. This similarity points towards the wide-spread potential for initiating similar programs in many vocational training and educational set-tings. If, as in the Job Corps program, providing quality child-care arrangements for mothers in such settings as high schools, colleges, other man-power training programs, prisons, and places of employment can improve the mother’s general motivation, enhance her earning capacity, and
improve her ability to be
a
good mother, then dol-lars invested in these programs will show a high return.REFERENCES
1. U.S. Department of Labor: Manpower Report of the President. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973.
2. Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor: Working Mothers and Need for Child Care Services. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967.
3. Howard, B. (ed.): Dropouts: Prevention and Rehabilita-tion. Arlington, Virginia: National School Public Relations Association, 1972.
4. Office of Economic Opportunity: Day Care Survey 1970-1971, child care bulletin No. 7. Washington, D.C.: Westinghouse Learning Corp. and Westat Re-search, Inc., the Day Care and Child Development Council of America, Inc., 1971.
DOES
THIS SOUND FAMIUAR?The major problems of departments of medicine are increased in teaching load, dispersion of house staff through several affiliated hospitals, a lack of re-sources to do all the tasks asked of them, and a schizophrenia concerning the departments’ mission to tertiary subspecialty medicine as opposed to primary or general medicine. The major issue confronting departments of medicine is a solution to the problem of training general physicians.
R. G. PETERSDORF
Departments of Medicine-1973
