Those who rely on grandparent care or a nanny are more likely to increase their family size. Spain is one of the countries with the lowest fertility rates in Europe. The average number of children per woman reached a new historic low in 2023: 1.12. This low fertility is often attributed to the lack of support services that facilitate the reconciliation of family and work obligations.
Source: La Vanguardia
Researchers from the Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED-UAB) and the UPF decided to analyze how childcare affects mothers’ intention to have more children. And their conclusion is clear: mothers who have to take their children to day care are less likely to have more children than those who leave them in the care of grandparents or nannies, and also than those who take care of them themselves.
As they explain in the article published in Papers, the sociology journal of the UAB, “there is a positive association between informal care (for example, that provided by grandparents) and the intention to have more offspring”.
And among those who resort to formal care, i.e. who take their children to daycare, whether the daycare is public or private has an impact. “Public care is positively associated with the intention to have more children, and private care is negatively associated,” summarizes Maida Juni, sociologist and first author of the study in conversation with La Vanguardia.
“What families seem to value most is the free and flexible nature of informal care.”
Maida Juni
Sociologist, researcher Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics
Therefore, the first hypothesis of the researchers -in addition Juni sign the article Alba Lanau (UPF) and Albert Esteve (director of the CED)- was that having childcare services would have a positive effect on fertility, on the intention to have more children.
However, after analyzing microdata from the latest Fertility Survey (dating from 2018) they have found that this is not always the case and that it is family support, rather than having services such as childcare, that is key to facilitating reconciliation and being encouraged to expand the family.
The study focused on women who have children aged 0 to 3 years and who live together with a partner as a couple, a third of whom said they intended to have another child in the next three years. This percentage rose to 57% in the case of those with only one child and was 61% among mothers with fewer children than desired.
But when the interest in having more children was crossed with the care strategy used by these women with their child from 0 to 3 years of age, these percentages varied. “Only 25% of mothers using formal care showed an intention to have more children, compared to 44% of those using informal care or a combination of both (45%),” the report details.
The intention to extend offspring is also greater among women who take direct care of their children than among those who take them to day care centers. The reasons may be diverse, but the study makes it clear that one is undoubtedly the expense involved.
“Families who pay for outsourcing care show less intention to have children than those who do not; and the higher the amount they pay, the more this intention decreases”, summarizes Juni in a conversation with La Vanguardia. Hence, the intention to have more children is lower among women who use private centers than among those who use public centers.
The researchers also draw attention to another of the findings of their work: “It does not seem that mothers who devote themselves exclusively to caregiving show greater intention to have children; this intention clearly decreases with age and increases with the level of education, although the latter relationship is not as strong”.
In reality, they explain, what families seem to value most is the free and flexible informal care, especially that provided by relatives, which also tends to be the most trusting during the first months of a child’s life.