Understanding participation in early childhood education and care: rights, policies and socio-economic conditions

This paper draws on the literature on familialism and uses the power resource framework of Vandenbroucke et al. (2021) to empirically estimate the factors affecting early childhood education and care (ECEC) attendance. It finds that entitlement to ECEC positively affects attendance, whereas the effects of parents’ leave – maternity in particular – are complex and mixed. Against expectations, government expenditure on childcare is not a robust predictor of higher attendance. Finally, the paper investigates the role played by the socio-economic conditions of the household to which a child belongs and finds that a disadvantaged background works as a penalty on attendance. The results have important policy implications that point to the need for a comprehensive policy approach to achieving higher ECEC attendance.