Factors affecting parental choice of childcare service for pre-school age children

The goal of this research is to identify whether women’s economic participation and types of employment affect their choice of childcare provider for pre-school aged children. Childcare options were classified into at-home care, preschool, daycare, and private educational institutions. A multinominal logit model was used to analyze the factors influencing each choice. The thirdwave data of the Korean Longitudinal Panel Survey of Women and Family (KLoWF), which includes both women’s employment variables and household childcare variables, was used. A total of 1,538 women with pre-school age children and the 543 among them who were participating in economic activities were subject to analysis. The findings of this research are as follows. While working mothers exhibited a greater propensity to use daycare facilities than did non-working mothers, when only working mothers were examined their type of employment and profession proved irrelevant to their choice between preschool and daycare. In terms of choice between daycare, at-home care, and private educational institution, excluding preschool as an option, certain professions and most employment types strongly preferred daycare. In conclusion, it is considered that while daycare-oriented policies are highly desirable in assisting working women with their childcare, the impact of both the specific type of employment and profession is negligible in working mothers’ choices between preschool and daycare. This suggests that child-related variables play a greater role in this choice than do women’s employment variables.