The Effects of Social Class on Caring Types for Preschool Children: Adopting Fuzzy-set Ideal Type Analysis

Abstract

The study aims to analyse the effects of factors of parents’ social class, such as income and education level on the types of child care, using 2014 Korea Time Use Survey (KTUS) Data. We devide parents’ child care into intersecting basic care and interactive care. By intersecting these two variables and utilizing fuzzy-set ideal type analysis, four types of child care―Comprehensive Care (CC), Time Investment (TI), Strategic Care (SC) and Outsourcing (O)―have been classified and their membership scores have been measured. Statistical models are divided into two sub-groups according to the age of preschool children, i.e., 0-2 years and 3-5 years. The results suggest that the effects of social class variables are different between these two sub-groups. Among parents with children aged 0-2 income affects IC, SC and O/N whereas education influences TI membership scores. Among parents with children aged 3-5, on the other hand, fathers’ education is relevant variable for O/N score. These findings suggest that social class factors matter in the patterns of parents’ child care. Based on the empirical results, we discuss some implications for policy and future research.