Non cognitive skills and childcare attendance

This research, analyzes the impact of formal childcare attendance at ages 0–2 on children’s attitudes toward schooling and also on social behavior at the end of the subjects’ first year of primary school and the end of high school. We compare children who attended formal childcare with children who were looked after at home, but who otherwise shared similar characteristics, both in terms of family characteristics and in the terms of the probability of having access to formal childcare in Italy... where the service is rationed. It is shown and found that having attended formal childcare significantly improves school readiness and social behavior in elementary school but that this impact disappears in high school. The effects are larger for boys and children of mothers with lower educational attainment and of fathers in low-level occupations.

They performed factor analysis separately on each area (attitude towards schooling and social behavior); the questions used for each category are reported in below...

For the youngest cohort, questions about school, answered by either the mother or the child, identified three factors was as:

1.

1. 1.

   The child reports liking school, reading, and math, and the mother reports that she did not have difficulties in having an interest in classes when starting primary school (Factor 1);

2. 2.

   The mother reports no difficulties in having interest, sitting still, and obeying (Factor 2);

3. 3.

   The mother reports no difficulties in eating and some difficulties in staying focused (Factor 3).

   
   

• Questions about social interaction and behavior led to these three factors:

1.

1. 1.

   Positive prosocial behavior reported by the mother, the child reports lending to friends and returning favors (Factor 1);

2. 2.

   The child reports not taking revenge on her peers, the mother reports no conduct and hyperactivity problems, good prosocial behavior (peers problems) (Factor 2);

3. 3.

   No emotional, conduct, or peer problems (Factor 3).

   
   

Appendix B: Score computation...

We hereby report the admission criteria applied in infant-toddler centers in Parma, Padua, and Reggio Emilia that we use to calculate the score that the child would get if their parents applied for a place in an infant-toddler center. We use the score as an exogenous determinant of the probability of using formal childcare.

As described in the identification strategy, we could not recover the admission criteria applied in the three cities in the relevant years. We thus used the oldest admission criteria that we could identify in the three cities. In particular, while for Reggio Emilia we could track back admission criteria applied in 2013–2014, for Parma and Padua we have to rely on criteria used in 2015–2016. As for Parma and Reggio Emilia, comparing the admission criteria that we apply and the latest available (respectively, 2017–2018 and 2016–2017), the criteria remained the same; as for Padua, while the criteria applied in 2017–2018 are the same as in 2015–2016, the score associated with each item slightly changed. In general, changes are small enough not to raise concerns about our approximation of past admission criteria with more recent ones.

2.

• Some emotional symptoms, good prosocial behavior (no hyperactivity according to the mother) (Factor 2)

3.

• No peer problems (according to the mother and to the child) (Factor 3); In Parma, the admission score depends on characteristics of the household, the working status of the parents, and other conditions.
• In particular, the score is attributed depending on the number of children in the household; the health conditions of parents, children, or other relatives (including grandparents); the presence of both parents; employment status and job characteristics of the parents; children in households suffering particularly severe conditions In Padua, priority is given to disabled children; the score depends on the presence of disabled persons in the households,  employment status of the parents, number of siblings, the distance between home and job location.
• In Reggio Emilia, the highest priority is given to disabled children or children in households with particularly severe conditions, as evaluated by the local health agency.
• The score then depends on the presence of both parents, their employment status (including characteristics of the contract and working hours), the presence of other children, the health conditions of the parents, or particular socio-economic conditions of the households.