2025

Kuusiholma-Linnamäki, Julia; Räikkönen, Eija; Lammi-Taskula, Johanna; Vandenbroeck, Michel; Alasuutari, Maarit

Introduction: Sociodemographic characteristics are robust predictors of children’s care arrangements. However, children’s unequal enrolment in early childhood education and care cannot be solely attributed to differences in sociodemographic characteristics, which are often considered separate from contextual factors. Therefore, we explored associations between sociodemographic characteristics and primary care arrangements for one-year-olds while taking into account municipal supplement to the home care allowance. Methods: The respondents (1,793 mothers) came from ten discretionarily chosen Finnish municipalities. We examined the sociodemographic characteristics of care arrangements with binary logistic regression analysis by summarizing the results of regressions as predicted probabilities, log odds ratios, and average marginal effects. The moderation of a municipal supplement to a home care allowance on the associations between sociodemographic characteristics and care arrangements was examined by using the test of the equality of average marginal effects. Results: Children whose mothers had a vocational or a tertiary qualification, came from middle- or high-income families, had a single parent taking care of the family, or had siblings under six years of age at home, were statistically significantly more often enrolled in early childhood education and care. However, the municipal supplement to the home care allowance did not moderate the linkage between sociodemographic characteristics and children’s care arrangements. Discussion: Sociodemographic characteristics consistently contributed to children’s care arrangements even in the context of a universal early childhood education and care system, irrespective of whether the municipality offered a supplement or not. Although Finland’s egalitarian early childhood education and care policy is geared toward supporting equal attendance by all children, the lack of national family policy alignment might create inequalities in children’s early childhood education and care.