Arbeitspapier
Parents under Stress – Evaluating Emergency Childcare Policies during the First COVID-19 Lockdown in Germany
What are the effects of school and daycare facility closures during the COVID-19 pandemic on parental well-being and parenting behavior? Can emergency childcare policies during a pandemic mitigate increases in parental stress and negative parenting behavior? To answer these questions, this study leverages cross-state variation in emergency childcare eligibility rules during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany and draws on unique data from the 2019 and 2020 waves of the German AID:A family panel. Employing a DDD and IV approach we identify medium-term ITT and LATE effects and find that while emergency care policies did not considerably affect parents' life satisfaction, partnership satisfaction or mental health, they have been effective in diminishing harsh parenting behavior. We find partly gendered effects, specifically on paternal parenting behavior. Our results suggest that decreasing parental well-being likely constitutes a general effect of the pandemic, whereas the observed increase in negative and potentially harmful parenting behavior is largely directly caused by school and daycare facility closures.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14359
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation
Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
General Welfare; Well-Being
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- Subject
-
parental well-being
harsh parenting
COVID-19
policy evaluation
school and daycare closures
AID:A
difference-in-difference-in-differences
instrumental variable estimation
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Schüller, Simone
Steinberg, Hannah S.
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2021
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Schüller, Simone
- Steinberg, Hannah S.
- Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2021