The work-related and personal factors associated with the willingness and ability of older adults to remain as child care workers and the factors associated with leaving child care work were studied in a time-series design. Subjects were 534 persons aged 50 years and older who were working for pay as child care providers. Of these, 341 replied to an initial questionnaire in October 1992, and 282 responded to a second in May 1993. Only 10% left paid child-care employment between the questionnaires. Nearly a third mentioned health problems as their reason for leaving, and a variety of other problems were mentioned. Those who remained employed and those who left were not significantly different by race, marital status, living arrangement, or level of education. Those who left were more likely to be older and to have been working for fewer years in the field. Pay, perceptions of fairness and opportunity, work satisfaction, and relationships with younger workers were related to older adults remaining in child care work. Older persons who continued working had higher levels of caregiving responsibility than did those who left child care work, but were less likely to have had formal preservice training than those who left. (Contains 18 tables and 29 references.) (SLD)