MOTHER’S EMPLOYMENT, CHILD CARE USE AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the effects of mother’s employment and non-parental child care on cognitive development in early childhood. Investment in the development of children at early rather than later ages provides higher returns in terms of labor market outcomes. Thus, decision making process of primary care givers are extremely important at this period. A nationally representative longitudinal data for the United States of America is used in this paper. Hybrid production function for the cognitive development is estimated within a dynamic framework using a two-step system Generalized Method of Moments estimator. The results show that more hours of center-based care significantly increase cognitive achievement and this holds true when center-based care is defined as full- or part-time. Furthermore, both a high quality home environment and a high quality out-of-home child care improve a child’s cognitive development while there is no statistically significant impact of maternal work hours.

Keywords

• Child Care,Cognitive Development,Generalized Method of Moments

ANNENİN İSTİHDAMI, ÇOCUK BAKIMI KULLANIMI VE ERKEN ÇOCUKLUK DÖNEMİNDE BİLİŞSEL GELİŞİM

Abstract

Bu çalışma annenin istihdamının ve çoçuk bakımı kullanımının erken çocukluk döneminde bilişsel gelişim üzerindeki etkilerini analiz etmeyi amaçlar. Çocukların gelişimine geç yaşta degil erken yaşta yatırım yapmak daha yüksek emek piyasası getirileri sağlar. Bu yüzden öncelikli bakım sağlayıcıların bu dönemde karar verme süreci oldukça önemlidir. Bu çalışmada Amerika Birleşik Devletleri için ulusal temsili bir panel veri kullanılır. İki aşamalı sistem Genelleştirilmiş Beklemler Yöntemi tahmincisi kullanılarak dinamik bir çerçevede bilişsel gelişim için hibrit üretim fonksiyonu tahmin edilir. Sonuçlar daha fazla saat kreş kullanımının bilişsel gelişimi anlamlı olarak etkilediğini ve bunun kreş kullanımı tam ya da yarı zamanlı olarak tanımlandığında da geçerli olduğunu gösterir. Ayrıca, annenin çalışma saati istatistiksel olarak anlamlı değilken yüksek kalite ev ortamı ve ev dışı çocuk bakımının her ikisi de çocukların bilişsel gelişimini geliştirir.

Keywords

• Çocuk Bakımı,Bilişsel Gelişim,Genelleştirilmiş Beklemler Yöntemi

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