This pilot study explored the relationships among quality as a parent reported criterion for choosing child care, the actual selection of accredited child care, and maternal separation anxiety. Of the 59 mothers, 29 had placed their infants in accredited child care centers and 30 had placed their infants in nonaccredited child care centers. Participants completed a standardized measure, the Maternal Separation Anxiety Scale, and indicated their top three criteria for choosing child care on a demographic form. Participants who reported quality as a top criterion were no more likely to have chosen an accredited program than participants who did not include quality as a criterion. Student t test indicated that mothers who reported greater concern about balancing the maternal and work roles, i.e., had higher scores on Subscale Three, were more likely to have enrolled their infants in nonaccredited than accredited child care programs.
