Uptake of Childcare Arrangements—Grandparental Availability and Availability of Formal Childcare

Naomi Biegel, Karel Neels and Layla Van den Berg
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Naomi Biegel: Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Karel Neels: Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Layla Van den Berg: Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: Grandparents constitute an important source of childcare to many parents. Focusing on the Belgian context, this paper improves our understanding of childcare decision-making by investigating how formal childcare availability and availability of grandparents affect childcare arrangements. By means of multinomial regression models we simultaneously model uptake of formal and informal childcare by parents. Combining linked microdata from the Belgian censuses with contextual data on childcare at the level of municipalities, we consider formal childcare availability at a local level, while including a wide array of characteristics which may affect grandparental availability. Results indicate that increasing formal care crowds-out informal care as the sole care arrangement, whereas combined use of formal and informal care becomes more prevalent. Characteristics indicating a lack of grandmaternal availability increase uptake of formal care and inhibit to a lesser extent the uptake of combined formal and informal care. While increasing formal care substitutes informal care use, the lack of availability of informal care by grandparents may be problematic, particularly for those families most prone to use informal care.

Keywords: formal childcare; informal childcare; grandparents; childcare availability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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