External Childcare Research Articles

Relationship satisfaction and family routines of young parents before and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent growth curve analysis.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents had to reorganize their family routines under many external stressors (e.g., limited external childcare), which could have negatively affected their relationship satisfaction. This study aimed to examine the changes in relationship satisfaction of young parents from pre-pandemic times up to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany in December 2020 and whether these changes were different for mothers and fathers. Additionally, the role of perceived pandemic-related stress and changes in family routines was investigated. Data from 564 participants from DREAMCORONA, a sub-study of the prospective longitudinal cohort study "Dresden Study on Parenting, Work, and Mental Health" (DREAM), were analyzed. Relationship satisfaction was assessed at three measurement points (T0: pre-pandemic, i.e., August 2018-March 2020; T1: May-June 2020; T2: October-December 2020). To estimate changes in relationship satisfaction over time, Latent Growth Curve Models were calculated. Changes in family routines (i.e., changes in the division of housework and childcare from T0 to T1 as well as the availability of external childcare facilities at T1) and perceived pandemic-related stress at T1 were used as predictors. The models were adjusted for education and number of children per household. There was no significant change in relationship satisfaction over time, with no differences between mothers and fathers. The multi-group model revealed that changes in the division of housework and childcare predicted changes in relationship satisfaction in mothers, but not in fathers. For mothers, doing more housework than before the pandemic was negatively associated with changes in their relationship satisfaction over time. Additionally, reporting that their partner did more childcare than before the pandemic was positively associated with the relationship satisfaction of mothers. Our results indicate no general negative prospective association between the COVID-19 pandemic and parental relationship satisfaction over time. Nevertheless, our findings highlight the importance of the division of housework and childcare for mothers' relationship satisfaction and how pandemic-related changes in family routines alter this association.

Introduction to the Thematic Series: Use and consequences of family policies among migrants and their descendants in Europe

This article is the introduction to the Thematic Series Use and consequences of family policies among migrants and their descendants in Europe. The study contexts are countries in different Western European regions: Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. Despite their differences with respect to welfare-state types in general and family policies in particular, these countries also vary when it comes to their immigration histories and current migrant populations. Yet, the fast-growing field of research on the effects of family polices on family and fertility behavior as well as work-family reconciliation has virtually overlooked migrants. To address this void in the existing literature, this Thematic Series raises two research questions: To what degree do family policies include, and are used by, migrants and their descendants? And, to what extent do such polices promote migrants’ integration into European societies? The collection contains six empirical articles investigating either eligibility or use and consequences of two specific family policy measures: parental leave and external childcare. Collectively, the studies show significant disadvantages among migrant groups in eligibility for family policy measures, and consequently in their use and impacts on further life-course patterns, compared to majority populations. They also demonstrate diverging patterns within migrant populations.

Working mothers in Greece during the COVID-19 pandemic: The conceptualization of “good motherhood” in conditions of lock-down and teleworking

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece in March 2020 caused many changes in daily life. Mothers’ duties increased dramatically during the pandemic, as external childcare support was practically non-existent. Working mothers had to manage their different roles and identities at the same time, with teleworking becoming mandatory. This article aims to understand how contemporary working mothers in Greece conceptualize “good motherhood”, taking into consideration the particularities of the pandemic. Eight working mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 18 from various parts of Greece responded to a public invitation posted on a popular social media platform. They participated in a semi-structured online interview during which they were invited to talk about their experience of the lock-down in relation to their role as working mothers. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). A common theme that emerged from their stories was the experience of loss of control over their lives and possibly a loss of the multiple dimensions of their identity, which appeared to have been reduced to being just a mom. Gender and parenting ideologies present prior to the pandemic continue to affect working mothers’ experiences during the pandemic.

How Does the Provision of Childcare Services Affect Mothers’ Employment Intentions? Empirical Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment

AbstractNumerous studies have demonstrated that the provision of early childhood education and childcare services (ECEC) is associated with higher women’s participation in the labor market. However, many questions about the causal relationship between the supply of childcare and patterns of female employment remain open. In an effort to overcome common endogeneity problems, we conducted a conjoint experiment in Switzerland, which enables us to analyze mothers’ employment intentions in different – and even in some hypothetical – contexts. Our results demonstrate that improving the provision of ECEC services does affect mothers’ intentions to engage in paid labor. Nevertheless, mothers comprise a heterogeneous group. As expected, ECEC services’ effects are limited for mothers with comparatively high levels of employment. In contrast, mothers with low levels of employment are quite reactive to changing policy contexts, especially if external childcare spots for preschoolers become affordable. Notably, elasticity is present not only in the behavior of women with preferences for supplementary, external childcare, but also in that of women with preferences for parental or home-centered childcare. Our study thus highlights childcare policies’ potential to change the patterns of female employment in contexts marked by persistent traditional gender roles and limited childcare provision.

External childcare and socio-behavioral development in Switzerland: Long-term relations from childhood into young adulthood

External childcare and socio-behavioral development in Switzerland: Long-term relations from childhood into young adulthood

External childcare and socio-behavioral development in Switzerland: Long-term relations from childhood into young adulthood.

This study examined early external childcare in relation to development from age 7 to 20. A Swiss sample was used (N = 1,225; 52% male). Development included multi-informant-reported externalizing behavior, internalizing problems, prosocial behavior, delinquency, and substance use. Growth curve models revealed that, dependent on the informant, time in a daycare center was related to increased externalizing and internalizing problems until at least age 11. It was not related to delinquency. Roughly three days per week at a daycare mother or playgroup was related to increased externalizing behavior. External family care was associated with increased prosocial behavior. Finally, time in a daycare center was associated with fewer externalizing but more internalizing problems and substance use for children from vulnerable backgrounds. This relation with substance use lasted to age 20.

COVID-19 and Work-Family Conflicts in Germany: Risks and Chances Across Gender and Parenthood.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected everyone’s daily life in one way or another, requiring a re-negotiation of existing strategies for work–life integration, not only for individuals but also within families and partnerships. To contribute to existing knowledge on work-life integration during COVID-19 in Germany, we look at gender and parenthood differences in the experiences of work-to-family (WFC) and family-to-work (FWC) conflicts. By accounting for employees’ previous conflict experiences, we were able to reveal the extent to which the current conditions contributed to differences in these conflicts. Moreover, we explored the relevance of demands and resources in the family and work spheres as a way to explain different levels of WFC and FWC across gender and parenthood. Our analyses are based on a sample of 660 employees from a German linked employer–employee panel study and a COVID-19 follow-up survey conducted in late 2020. Results revealed that work–family conflict experiences before the pandemic play an important role in current conflict perceptions. Whereas WFC were more likely to be accentuated during the pandemic, prior FWC experiences may have helped to mitigate conflicts under these new conditions. Work–family conflicts in general have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this finding applied only to conflicts in the family-to-work direction. Although such increases were not limited to parents, they were particularly high in this group. Overall, gender differences in work–family conflicts were absent, but differences were found between mothers and fathers. The need to compensate for a lack of external childcare, as well as having to work from home, increased FWC, especially among fathers. This study suggests that FWC in particular became more important during the pandemic; however, parents were not the only ones who were disadvantaged when it came to work–life integration; childless individuals likewise struggled to balance the demands of work and private life.

Turning the Tide for Academic Women in STEM: A Postpandemic Vision for Supporting Female Scientists.

The "leaky pipeline" of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which is especially acute for academic mothers, continues to be problematic as women face continuous cycles of barriers and obstacles to advancing further in their fields. The severity and prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and exacerbated the unique challenges faced by female graduate students, postdocs, research staff, and principal investigators because of lockdowns, quarantines, school closures, lack of external childcare, and heightened family responsibilities, on top of professional responsibilities. This perspective provides recommendations of specific policies and practices that combat stigmas faced by women in STEM and can help them retain their careers. We discuss actions that can be taken to support women within academic institutions, journals, government/federal centers, university-level departments, and individual research groups. These recommendations are based on prior initiatives that have been successful in having a positive impact on gender equity─a central tenet of our postpandemic vision for the STEM workforce.

Differences in Children's Social Development: How Migration Background Impacts the Effect of Early Institutional Childcare Upon Children's Prosocial Behavior and Peer Problems.

This article focuses on the early years of children from immigrant families in Germany. Research has documented disparities in young children’s development correlating with their family background (e.g., immigrant or ethnic minority status), making clear the importance of early intervention. Institutional childcare—as an early intervention for children at risk—plays an important role in Germany, as 34.3% of children below the age of three and 93% of children above that age are in external childcare. This paper focuses on the extent to which children from families with a background of migration differ in their social development when considering their age of entry into early external childcare (and thus its duration). Data from the infant cohort study of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, N = 1,846) is used to analyze the impact of early institutional childcare before the age of 3 years on children’s social competence at the age of 5 years, controlling for gender, siblings, temperament, home learning activities, and socioeconomic status. Results show the effects of duration of early external childcare on peer problems for children from families with a background of migration, in such a way that children who attend early external childcare for more than 1 year before the age of three show less problem behavior with peers than those who attend for less than a year. These findings have equity implications for children with a migration background living in Germany, especially as the proportion of these children is trending upwards.

College women leaders, 1985–2015: achievement motivations across generations

PurposeGiven continuing gender inequality in the upper echelons of organizations, women's leadership aspirations and orientations are of significant research interest. Controversy remains as to whether today's “Millennial” college women approach work with different leadership aspirations and attitudes than previous generational cohorts. This study compares the leadership and achievement orientations of college women leaders from 1985 to 2015, along with peer comparators from 2015.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from attendees at a conference for college women leaders in 1985 and 2015; male and female comparators were surveyed in 2015.FindingsComparing 1985 and 2015 cohorts of college women leaders suggests both similarity and change, as well as differences between women leaders and their male and female peers. Women leaders from 2015 demonstrated no differences in intrinsic direct achievement, lower self-esteem and higher power apprehension and lower levels of leadership motivation compared to the 1985 cohort. Millennial women leaders reported higher intrinsic direct and power direct achievement than male and female peers, with men higher on competitive achievement than either female group. Millennial women were more concerned about workplace gender equity, about sharing household responsibilities and were more favorable toward using external childcare while working compared to male peers.Practical implicationsImplications for developing young women with leadership potential are discussed.Originality/valueThese results make a strong contribution to understanding the leadership aspirations, achievement orientations and work–life expectations of the next generation of organizational leaders.

Reflections on motherhood and the impact of COVID 19 pandemic on women's scientific careers.

I am writing this piece in a bit of an impulse. It has been several months now since life was normal. I used to have childcare support and I could often go outside to work, to run errands or for any other reason. Now, my two-year-old daughter wakes me up at about 6:30 AM and I play with her until lunchtime. She takes a two-hour nap in the afternoon, a period I use for remote work meetings. When she wakes up, I stay with her until around 7:00 PM. Then it is TV and dinnertime for her and work time for me again. She typically goes to bed at 8:30 PM, and I stay in her room until about 9:30 PM. At that point, I am exhausted. I can rarely work at that time. I have been in self-isolation at home with my elderly mother, who is at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Of course, it does not help that I no longer can count on external childcare and that in my country the response to COVID-19 has been the second worst in the world, with potential to become the worst soon.

Work, life, and the gender effect: Perspectives of ACVIM Diplomates in 2017. Part 2-The intersection of personal life and professional career.

BackgroundIn the field of veterinary surgery, women neither marry nor have children at the same rate as men, and those who do may experience more career disruption as a result. The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) is 1 of the few areas of specialized medicine that is predominantly female; it is unknown if such a demographic shift would produce a different environment for individuals cultivating their personal life.Hypothesis/ObjectivesTo report data regarding subjective and objective aspects of the intersection of the personal and professional lives of Diplomates of the ACVIM.SampleEight hundred ninety‐six surveys (781 completed) of ACVIM Diplomates, including cardiology, large and small animal internal medicine, neurology, and oncology.MethodsAn 82‐item online survey was distributed to ACVIM Diplomates via Diplomate college listservs. Participation was voluntary.ResultsMen were more likely to be married and have children than were women. Women had or adopted their first child at a later career stage compared with men, and agreed more strongly that career stage was an influential factor in family planning. Those with children worked fewer hours compared with those without, and this effect was greater among women. Women were more likely to require external childcare, but most men and women shared childcare responsibilities equally outside of working hours.Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceThe intersection of personal and professional life differs between men and women in the ACVIM, which may create different needs, preferences, or barriers to work‐life balance in the workforce.

Efficient child care subsidies: any need for cash for care?

We model choices between caring for an infant at home or through some market provision of child care. Maternal labor supply necessitates child care purchased in the market. Households are distinguished along three dimensions: (i) exogenous income, (ii) the wage rate of the primary care giver and (iii) the quality which the primary caregiver provides for child care. The market can supply child care at varying qualities and in continuous amounts. All households value consumption and child care quality. Sources of market failure comprise taxation of labor and productivity impacts on child care not fully taken account of by parents. Optimal corrective subsidies are highly correlated with taxed paid by secondary earners. In a second-best environment, typical policies of subsidizing child care will also distort quality choices. Employing “no-use subsidies” mitigates such distortions and can also counter excessive levels of subsidies for external child care.

The intersection of personal and professional lives for male and female diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2015.

To characterize objective and subjective elements of the personal lives of American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) diplomates and identify elements of personal life associated with professional life or career success. 836 ACVS diplomates. An 81-item questionnaire was sent to 1,450 diplomates in 2015 via email and conducted by means of an online platform. Responses were analyzed to summarize trends and identify associations among selected variables. Men were more likely than women to be married or in a domestic partnership (88% vs 68%, respectively) and to have children (77% vs 47%). Among women but not men, respondents in large animal practice were less likely than were those in small animal practice to be represented in these categories. Women had children later in their career than did men and indicated that their stage of training played an important role in family planning. Respondents with children worked significantly fewer hours than did those without children, with a greater reduction in hours for women versus men (6.0 vs 3.1 hours, respectively). Women were more likely to require external childcare services than were men. Women were more likely to report that having children had negatively impacted their professional lives. No negative associations between measures of professional success (eg, advancement or personal income) and parenthood were identified. Family demographics differed between male and female ACVS diplomates, yet no objective impact on career success was identified. Work-life balance may play an important role in recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction of veterinary surgeons.

Discrimination in hiring based on potential and realized fertility: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment

Due to conventional gender norms, women are more likely to be in charge of childcare than men. From an employer's perspective, in their fertile age they are also at “risk” of pregnancy. Both factors potentially affect hiring practices of firms. We conduct a large-scale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, sending out approx. 9000 job applications, varying job candidate's personal characteristics such as marital status and age of children. We find evidence that, for part-time jobs, married women with older kids, who likely finished their childbearing cycle and have more projectable childcare chores than women with very young kids, are at a significant advantage vis-à-vis other groups of women. At the same time, married, but childless applicants, who have a higher likelihood to become pregnant, are at a disadvantage compared to single, but childless applicants to part-time jobs. Such effects are not present for full-time jobs presumably because, by applying to these in contrast to part-time jobs, women signal that they have arranged for external childcare.

Women’s Employment and Childcare Choices in Spain Through The Great Recession

ABSTRACTThe Great Recession (2008–13) changed patterns in women’s employment and the use of formal and informal external childcare among mothers of young children in Spain. This paper analyzes these changes using an analytical strategy that takes into account interdependencies across the outcomes under study. The results show that the economic crisis has resulted in interesting changes in the use of external childcare across mothers’ and fathers’ employment status; for example, as men’s unemployment increased, the use of informal non-parental childcare declined, which might be related to (unobserved) changes in fathers’ involvement in childcare during the recession. These results further indicate the need for policies that improve access to formal childcare, as well as policies that provide men and women with employment stability.

Discrimination in Hiring Based on Potential and Realized Fertility: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment

Due to conventional gender norms, women are more likely to be in charge of childcare than men. From an employer’s perspective, in their fertile age they are also at “risk” of pregnancy. Both factors potentially affect hiring practices of firms. We conduct a largescale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, sending out approx. 9,000 job applications, varying job candidate’s personal characteristics such as marital status and age of children. We find evidence that, for part-time jobs, married women with older kids, who likely finished their childbearing cycle and have more projectable childcare chores than women with very young kids, are at a significant advantage vis-avis other groups of women. At the same time, married, but childless applicants, who have a higher likelihood to become pregnant, are at a disadvantage compared to single, but childless applicants to part-time jobs. Such effects are not present for full-time jobs, presumably, because by applying to these in contrast to part-time jobs, women signal that they have arranged for external childcare.

Female labor supply, fertility rebounds, and economic development

AbstractWe show that a fertility rebound can occur as the female wage rate rises concomitantly with economic development. Under plausible conditions, capital accumulation raises the marginal product of labor and hence the female wage rate. Unless the economy is trapped in a lower equilibrium, the fertility rate starts to decline at a certain level of the female wage rate and then turns upward at a higher wage level, presenting a fertility rebound. For such fertility rebounds to appear without policy intervention, the availability of external child care at high female wage rates is crucially important. The external child‐care price must be lower at high female wage rates. Otherwise the fertility rate might continue to decline.

Grandparents’ Role in Spanish Families’ Work/Life Balance Strategies

In recent years, grandparental childcare has been instrumental to Spanish parents’ ability to engage in paid work. At the same time, the use of formal childcare services, paid domestic assistance and parental leave-taking have also intensified. The objectives of this study are: (1) to estimate the scope of the support received from grandparents in caring for children; and (2) to assess the impact of the diversification of childcare resources on highly frequent grandparental childcare in two-parent families. The sample covered the 2304 parents with at least one child under 13 interviewed on the occasion of the Survey on the Use of Parental Leave in Spain, 2012. Three types of factors were analysed: (1) use of external childcare resources; (2) time devoted by parents to childcare and paid work; and (3) control factors measuring grandparents’ availability, childcare needs and income. The findings suggested that international comparative studies based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) underestimate the scope of grandparental childcare. Two-parent families with higher incomes resorted less frequently to grandparental childcare. In addition, formal childcare services, paid domestic work and parental leaves are associated with less frequent grandparental involvement. Overall, the findings suggest that more diversified deployment of the available resources may contribute to reducing grandparental childcare.

Perceiving Reconciliation: Child Care Policies and Gendered Time Conflicts

In recent decades, many studies have examined gender-related differences in paid employment and the reconciliation of family and employment. Considering perceptions of time conflicts with regards to work at home and leisure activities, this article contributes to a more encompassing understanding of attitudes toward reconciliation problems. Special attention is given to the role of external child care services. The use of an original data set from 60 Swiss municipalities and hierarchical multiresponse regression models enable an analysis of the various aspects of time conflicts simultaneously, and a consideration of how different policy contexts shape these attitudes. This study provides evidence that the communal provision of external child care is related to gender-specific perceptions of time conflicts. Most interestingly, men seem to be affected most strongly by communal policy conditions, whereby the provision of external child care is related to systematically higher levels of time conflicts.