Abstract
Most research on formal child care and children’s outcomes has focused on single countries. We, however, contend that policy context may moderate the association between formal child care characteristics and children’s socioemotional well-being. We examined this by comparing the Netherlands, Finland and the UK; three countries that differ regarding family policies. Of these three countries, Finland was recently ranked highest (ranked 1st) with regards to quality of child care in a recent analysis by the Economist, followed by the UK (ranked 3rd) and then the Netherlands (ranked 7th). We hypothesized that children who attend child-care settings in countries with higher-quality formal child-care provision would generally show better socioemotional outcomes. Data from the comparative ‘Families 24/7’ survey were used, including 990 parents with children aged 0–12. We distinguished between two age groups in our analysis. Results indicated that, compared to the UK, longer hours in formal care were less beneficial in the Netherlands. Furthermore, spending time in formal care during nonstandard hours was more harmful for children in Finland compared to the UK. Lastly, receiving care from multiple caregivers was more disruptive for British children than for Dutch children. No differences were found between Finland and the Netherlands.
Highlights
Life has undergone significant changes in the past few decades
Descriptive findings show that Finnish parents reported higher levels of externalizing behavior for their target child compared to Dutch parents (Table 3)
Concerning prosocial behavior, higher levels are reported in the Netherlands and in the UK compared to Finland
Summary
Life has undergone significant changes in the past few decades. The formerly prominent male breadwinner model has weakened in many Western societies, as a large proportion of mothers have entered the labor market (Crompton et al 2007). Even though the use of formal child care is relatively common in Western countries, considerable country variation exists (OECD Family Database 2015). Increases in childcare subsidies have been found to affect formal care enrolment positively (Greenberg 2010). High levels of child-care subsidies have even been linked to lower child poverty and child mortality (Engster and Stensöta 2011). High-quality child care has in turn been associated with better child outcomes (Broekhuizen et al 2016), indicating that family policies matter for child-care enrolment, and for child well-being. Whereas the existing literature does provide insight into country differences in the use of formal child care (Kröger 2010; Mamolo et al 2011), studies on formal child care and child outcomes tend to focus on single countries
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