Peer-reviewed article
Early Child-care Arrangements and Both Parents’ Subjective Well-being
Valérie-Anne Ryser, Marieke Heers ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study looks at which child-care arrangements Swiss parents use for children aged 0 to 4, and how these arrangements relate to mothers' and fathers' subjective well-being. It separates care by parents, grandparents, other relatives, formal institutions and mixed arrangements. It uses Swiss Household Panel data from 2002 to 2017 and multilevel regression models. Grandparental care is linked to higher well-being for both parents than the other arrangements. The outcomes measured are the parents' well-being, not the children's.
Key points
- Switzerland is described as having limited and costly child-care.
- Grandparental care relates positively to both parents' subjective well-being.
- Compared with grandparental care, care by relatives and formal or mixed arrangements tends to decrease most satisfaction dimensions.
- Formal care, care by relatives and mixed arrangements relate to a decrease in positive affect.
- Negative affect is not significantly associated with the different child-care arrangements.
Limitations
The abstract reports associations from observational panel data and does not say whether the links are causal. It does not measure child outcomes, so it cannot show which arrangement is best for children. Results come from Switzerland only.
Abstract
AbstractThis study focuses on Switzerland where child-care is limited in offer and costly. It examines what child-care patterns parents of 0- to 4-years old children use; and, how different arrangements relate to several domains of mothers’ and fathers’ cognitive and affective subjective well-being (SWB). A major contribution of the present study is the distinction between child-care provided by parents, grandparents, relatives, formal institutions and mixed arrangements. Based on data from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) from 2002 to 2017, multilevel regression models are applied to estimate the relationship between child-care arrangements and both parents’ SWB. The results demonstrate that grandparental care relates positively to both parents’ SWB: Compared to grandparental child-care, relatives and formal or mixed child-care arrangements tend to decrease most of the satisfaction dimensions. Formal child-care and child-care provided by relatives as well as mixed arrangements relate to a decrease in positive affect. Negative affect is not significantly associated to the different child-care arrangements.