What is Child Care Matters?

The Child Care Matters (CCM) study was designed to explore the impact of access to high-quality child care on children from low-income families in Toronto, Canada.

CCM was conducted in partnership with and funded by Children’s Services in the City of Toronto. The CCM sample consists of families who qualified for child care subsidies at the start of the study. Between 2014 and 2016, almost 900 families were recruited from the City of Toronto’s child care subsidy waitlist. The CCM sample consists of low-income, ethnically diverse families, many of whom are led by a single parent. Families with these characteristics are underrepresented in research, which adds to the contributions made by the CCM study.

Across multiple waves of data collection, we collected information about children’s child care arrangements, child and maternal mental health, family functioning, parenting, parents’ employment, children’s learning outcomes, and many other factors. The CCM study has answered many questions about the type of childcare families with these characteristics were able to obtain for their children and how childcare was associated with children’s and mothers’ well-being.

Data collection was in progress when COVID-19 struck. Additional funding from the Leong Centre at the University of Toronto allowed us to study how CCM families coped with stress during the pandemic and its effects on CCM children and their families. Having pre- and during-COVID-19 data allowed us to answer important questions about characteristics that helped, or made it harder, for families to cope with the pandemic. The findings from numerous CCM studies are presented in the different sections of this website.

We invite you to explore the site to learn more about our work and stay updated with the latest results.