Center-Based Care and Parenting Activities

Jonas Jessen, Katharina Spiess () and Sevrin Waights

No 1155, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: We examine the relationship between parenting activities and center-based care using time diary and survey data for mothers in Germany. While mothers using center-based care spend significantly less time in the presence of their child, we find that differences in the time spent on specific activities such as reading, talking, and playing with the child are relatively small or zero. The pattern of results is more pronounced for lower education mothers. The lack of large decreases in activities are explained by two factors: (i) that center care replaces time that parents spend with the child but are doing other things such as housework or leisure (a small direct effect), and (ii) that evenings become relatively more activity-rich (a compensating indirect effect). For the intensive margin (full-day vs. half-day) we find more additional reductions in parenting activities, but these are com pensated for by lower education mothers during non-center hours. Our findings represent novel evidence that activities in the home environment are a complement to center-based care, highlighting a credible additional mechanism for child development effects of center-based care.

Keywords: Child care; Child development; Time use; Parenting investments; Oster method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 p.
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.833208.de/diw_sp1155.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Centre‐Based Care and Parenting Activities (2022)
Working Paper: Centre-based care and parenting activities (2022)
Working Paper: Center-Based Care and Parenting Activities (2021)
Working Paper: Center-based care and parenting activities (2020)
Working Paper: Center-Based Care and Parenting Activities (2020)
Working Paper: Center-based care and parenting activities (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1155

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