Age-specific Effects of Early Daycare on Children's Health

Building Health across Generations: Unraveling the Impact of Early Childcare on Maternal Health

“…West Germany eventually reached childcare coverage rates above 90% for kindergarten ages in the 2000s (Müller & Wrohlich, 2020) thanks to the implementation of the Child and Adolescent Support Law (Kinder-und Jugendhilfegesetz ) in 1996 for which all children aged three and older were legally entitled to a childcare slot. However, access to public childcare for children aged 0-2 in West Germany remained limited, with childcare coverage rates below 5% until the mid-2000s (Barschkett, 2022). Given the differences in childcare provision between East and West Germany 2 , our analysis focuses on early childcare in West Germany for children aged 0-2.…”

“…From 2005, several reforms to expand childcare slots for children under three were implemented and childcare coverage rates reached almost 30% by 2019. The introduction of highly subsidised formal childcare for children younger than three indeed encouraged West German mothers to join the labour force (Huber & Rolvering, 2023, Müller & Wrohlich, 2020, while boosting fertility (Bauernschuster et al, 2016), improving child outcomes (Barschkett, 2022, Felfe & Lalive, 2018, Sandner et al, 2022, shrinking the child penalty (Lim & Duletzki, 2023), and promoting less-traditional gender norms (Zoch & Schober, 2018). However, the impact of the childcare expansion in West Germany on other life dimensions such as maternal health remains understudied.…”

“…Our findings provide compelling evidence supporting the idea of an intra-household transmission of communicable diseases: mothers experience 3.9-8% (compared to sample means) more infections and 1.5-3.9% more respiratory diseases due to a 10 percentage point (pp) rise in childcare coverage rates when their child is aged 1-2 years old. While for children there is a substitution of infectious illness spells from elementary school to the first years of childcare (Barschkett, 2022), effects for mothers fade out as the child grows up. In contrast, mothers benefit from childcare availability with a 7-10.9% reduction in obesity and a 5-7.3% decrease in anaemia from early childcare ages.…”

“…First, we contribute to the literature on the impact of family policies, more precisely childcare policies, on (parental) health. There is a large field of literature assessing the effects of various family policies, including parental leave (e.g., Danzer et al, 2022, Danzer & Lavy, 2018, informal care (e.g., Barschkett et al, 2021, del Boca et al, 2018, and formal childcare (e.g., Baker et al, 2008, Barschkett, 2022, Bosque-Mercader, 2022, Cattan et al, 2021, van den Berg & Siflinger, 2022 on various child outcomes, including health. Much less is known about the effects of such reforms on parents, beyond labour supply (e.g., Ginja et al, 2020, Huber & Rolvering, 2023, Müller & Wrohlich, 2020 and fertility (e.g., Bauernschuster et al, 2016, Lalive & Zweimüller, 2009.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence of the effects of less severe child health conditions on parental health. As the childcare expansion in West Germany has been shown to affect child health in terms of a shift in immunity development from elementary school age to early childcare age (e.g., Barschkett, 2022), maternal health might be affected through intergenerational transmission of health. This paper is structured as follows.…”