Patterns of Childcare Information Seeking by Families

Understanding the support system of families is essential to the development of effective parent education resources. Families in Texas were surveyed regarding their current sources of childrearing information and the types of child development information that would be of interest. The results indicated that different family types (e.g. step, single parent) utilized different sources of information, but all families tended to be interested in similar topics. Single parents often appeared to have limited support networks; other families most often relied on informal sources such as friends, family and clergy. Implications for parent education are discussed as well as other avenues of research.