Undergraduate Researcher: Danielle Estes

For her Undergraduate Research/Creative Activity Award, Danielle Estes, a senior in the Sociology Department, conducted a qualitative research project to explore the factors that influence the child care choices of college student parents. She conducted 13 in-depth interviews with student parents at SIUC. The study's purpose was to understand how parents decide what is most important in a child care arrangement and how they explain these decisions to others.

Danielle found that parents find themselves in a state of cognitive dissonance resulting from the realization that their ideas regarding what it means to be a good parent often conflict with the demands inherent in pursuing an education. In order to relieve this dissonance, parents offer what Scott and Lyman call "accounts" to explain their behavior, which helps them to align their actions with cultural expectations for what is considered acceptable. The accounts used by parents often reflect that they are going to school for the children's sake and explain why putting their children into someone else's care is "the right thing to do."

Danielle's message:
I have learned so much from my research experience. I have learned about the entire research process from conception to dissemination, and I realize that conducting research is very complex, demanding, and rewarding work. Through this experience, I have acquired skills that I will take with me through my academic career and beyond. I am very grateful to have had this experience. Although conducting research is a challenging endeavor, there is something about the entire process of creating knowledge that is very invigorating, and I know that I plan to make it my life's work.