Emel Memiş and Ebru Kongar

Daycares closed on March 16, 2020 in Türkiye to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, the two most common nonparental child care arrangements in Türkiye—care of children by grandparents and nannies—became undesirable due to health concerns and in some cases also infeasible due to the partial lockdown for individuals under the age of 20 and over the age of 64.

We estimate the potential impact of new constraints on nonparental child care arrangements due to the pandemic on the parental caregiving time of married parents of preschool age children by using data from the 2014–2015 Turkish Time Use Survey (Turkish Statistical Institute, 2014-2015). Comparing how parental caregiving time varies by gender and the use of nonparental child care arrangements, we find that new constraints on nonparental child care arrangements during the pandemic have potentially increased the gender difference in parental caregiving time by an hour and forty minutes in Türkiye.

Expected increases in the care work burden of parents, especially mothers, due to daycare and school closures around the globe during the pandemic has received much attention in the popular media and in scholarly circles. While time use data during the pandemic have yet to become available, the magnitude of the increase in the time burden of caring for young children during the pandemic can be roughly estimated by using data from recent time use surveys and estimating the variation in parental caregiving time by assessing whether or not parents use nonparental child care arrangements. For instance, using data from the 2012–13 German time use surveys, Jonas Jessen and Sevrin Waights (2020) compare the time that parents with and without daycare usage spend providing primary and secondary childcare in Germany. They find that, in the absence of daycare services, mothers spend an additional 134 minutes in parental caregiving activities, while fathers spend only 19 minutes more in these activities.

Using data from the 2014–2015 Turkish Time Use Survey (TUS), we analyze how gendered patterns of parental caregiving time varies among married mothers and fathers of preschool age children by use of nonparental child care. We examine how the time that parents spend in primary, secondary and total (primary and secondary) caregiving activities vary by gender and by use of nonparental child care services. Secondary childcare activities are activities provided in conjunction with a primary activity other than child caregiving, such as housework or leisure. We also examine how these activities vary by the time of day in a typical day for mothers and fathers of preschool age children and how use of nonparental child care arrangements affects parental caregiving throughout the day. Use of nonparental child care arrangements is most likely to reduce the childcare burden during the day between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, which are typical daycare hours. Prior to the pandemic, 14 percent of households with preschool age children used nonparental child care arrangements. Due to the lack of affordable and good quality child care services in Türkiye, the two most common nonparental child care arrangements is care by grandparents (primarily grandmothers) and nannies. We include these child care arrangements, daycare services and other nonparental child care arrangements (such as care by female relatives other than grandparents, babysitters etc.) and compare the time that parents of preschool children with and without nonparental care arrangements spend in parental caregiving activities. Daycare closures are not likely to have increased the average parental caregiving time in Türkiye as, unlike Germany, public provision of affordable good-quality child care services is not available in Türkiye and private child care services are utilized only by high-income households. Child caregiving by grandparents or nannies becoming unsafe for both the care giver and the recipient during COVID-19 pandemic, however, is more likely to have increased the parental caregiving burden for a larger share of households with preschool age children. Furthermore, closure of private child care services is also likely to have impacted high-income parents who are able to afford these services in Türkiye.

Below, we estimate the gender-differentiated outcomes of the unavailability of nonparental child care arrangements for parental caregiving time among mothers and fathers of preschool age children. We present our findings for the variation in the time that mothers and fathers spend in total primary and secondary child caregiving activities by use of nonparental child care arrangements in Table 1.

Compared to their counterparts who use nonparental child care arrangements, mothers of preschool children who do not use nonparental child care arrangements spend 1 hour and 28 minutes more in parental caregiving activities. Fathers’ caregiving time varies considerably less with use of nonparental child care arrangements and is actually associated with slightly more time spent providing childcare. Our findings show that in households without childcare services, mothers spend 3 times more than fathers providing childcare.

We examine the variation in mothers’ and fathers’ primary and secondary child caregiving time with or without use of nonparental child care arrangements in Figures 1 and 2. Use of nonparental child care arrangements is associated with considerably less time spent by mothers in primary child caregiving activities, while it has virtually no effect on fathers’ primary child caregiving time. Mothers’ secondary child caregiving time varies very little with or without use of nonparental child care arrangements. Fathers in households with nonparental child care arrangements spend slightly more time providing secondary childcare.

Figure 1. Mothers’ and fathers’ primary child caregiving time, with and without use of nonparental child care arrangements, 2014-15 (hours:minutes per day)

Source: Authors’ calculations from Turkish Time Use Survey data files 2014-2015.

Figure 2. Daily primary child caregiving time of married mothers and fathers of preschool children by use of nonparental child care arrangements, 2014-2015 (hours:minutes per day)

Source: Authors’ calculations from Turkish Time Use Survey data files 2014-2015.

In Figures 3 and 4, we present the patterns of child caregiving throughout the day for mothers and fathers, respectively. As preschool children need and receive care around the clock, mothers in households that do not use childcare services provide care at every hour of the day, with caregiving time at its peak between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM (Figure 3). Mothers who use nonparental child care arrangements spend less time providing childcare than their counterparts without nonparental child care arrangements, and the difference is most notable during the typical daycare hours of 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Use of nonparental child care arrangements makes little difference for fathers’ child caregiving time, except between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM when fathers without childcare services spend slightly more time in child caregiving (Figure4).

Figure 3. Mothers’ total child caregiving time by the time of day, with and without use of nonparental child care arrangements, 2014-15 (minutes per day)

Source: Authors’ calculations from Turkish Time Use Survey data files 2014-2015.

Figure 4. Fathers’ total child caregiving time by the time of day, with and without use of nonparental child care arrangements, 2014-15 (minutes per day)

Source: Authors’ calculations from Turkish Time Use Survey data files 2014-2015.

These results are consistent with a traditional gender division of labor among parents of preschool age children who do not use nonparental child care arrangements: gender difference in parental child caregiving is smaller among parents who use nonparental child care arrangements but only because mothers spend less time providing primary childcare. Use of childcare services does not affect mothers’ secondary child caregiving time, while fathers with nonparental child care arrangements spend more time in secondary child caregiving activities. Fathers’ primary child caregiving time remains virtually unchanged by use of nonparental child care arrangements. Compared to their counterparts without nonparental child care arrangements, the less time mothers spend providing primary childcare and slightly more time that fathers spend providing secondary childcare leads to a smaller gap in total child caregiving time.

In countries such as Germany, where childcare services for preschool age children are more widely utilized, daycare closures are estimated to have a larger impact on mothers’ child caregiving time. Yet, our findings show that even in Türkiye, where child care services remain out of reach for most households because of limited supply of affordable and good quality child care services, mothers’ child caregiving time has been impacted by the pandemic and is likely to have caused a new form of care crisis, disproportionately increasing mothers’ care work burden relative to fathers. That nannies and grandparents were out of reach during the pandemic is a plausible explanation. The smaller gender gap in parental child caregiving time in households with nonparental child care arrangements reveals how increased access to affordable and good quality child care services could transform the gender division of labor in Türkiye.

References
Jonas Jessen, Sevrin Waights and C. Katharina Spieß. 2020. Geschlossene Kitas: Mütter tragen mit Blick auf Zeiteinteilung vermutlich die Hauptlast, DIW Aktuell 34.
Turkish Statistical Institute [TSI]. 2014-15. Time Use Survey Database, 2014-15.