Background: Difficulties with work‒family reconciliation contribute to explaining the low participation of women in the labour market and low fertility levels in several developed countries. Understanding how much different types of childcare can help mothers to balance family and work is crucial for implementing ad hoc policies. Objective: This study examines whether working mothers’ satisfaction with work‒family balance is associated with different combinations of paid and unpaid childcare arrangements. Difficulties in using different types of childcare are also considered. Methods: We use random effects models on panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (2003‒2013). Results: Results show that a balanced mix of paid and unpaid childcare is associated with mothers’ highest satisfaction. Difficulties related to the affordability and the flexibility of paid childcare negatively relate to the satisfaction with work‒family balance. Moreover, even after adjusting for experienced difficulties, the “mixed” arrangement guarantees the most satisfying combination of work and family responsibilities. Contribution: Taken together, our analyses are suggestive of the idea that improving the flexibility and the affordability of paid childcare services is a way to increase mothers’ satisfaction with the work‒family balance. The issue might become even more urgent if we consider that grandparents’ availability is not so obvious in a context where young people work and live at long distance from their original family, and when age at first (grand)parenthood is increasing.

中文翻译：

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育儿安排和职业母亲对工作‒家庭平衡的满意度

背景：工作与家庭和解的困难促使人们解释了一些发达国家妇女在劳动力市场上的参与率低和生育率低。了解不同类型的托儿服务可以帮助母亲平衡家庭和工作，这对于实施临时政策至关重要。目的：本研究探讨了职业母亲对工作与家庭平衡的满意程度是否与有偿和无偿育儿安排的不同组合有关。还考虑了使用不同类型的托儿服务的困难。方法：我们对来自澳大利亚家庭，收入和劳动力动态（HILDA）调查（2003-2013）的面板数据使用随机效应模型。结果：结果表明，有偿和无偿育儿的平衡组合与母亲的最高满意度有关。与可负担性和有偿托儿服务的灵活性相关的困难与对工作与家庭平衡的满意度负相关。而且，即使在适应经历的困难之后，“混合”安排也可以保证工作和家庭责任的最令人满意的结合。贡献：综上所述，我们的分析表明，提高有偿托儿服务的灵活性和可负担性是增加母亲对工作与家庭平衡的满意度的一种方式。如果我们认为在年轻人工作和生活距离原家庭很远的环境中，以及当初（祖）辈年龄增长的时候，祖父母的可及性就不那么明显了，这个问题可能会变得更加紧迫。