We examine the relationship between parenting activities and centre-based care using time diary and survey data for mothers in Germany. While mothers using centre-based care spend significantly less time in the presence of their child, we find that differences in the time spent on specific activities such as reading, talking, and playing with the child are relatively small or zero. The pattern of results is more pronounced for lower education mothers. The lack of large decreases in activities is explained by two factors: (i) that centre care replaces time that parents spend with the child but are doing other things such as housework or leisure (a small direct effect), and (ii) that evenings become relatively more activity-rich (a compensating indirect effect). For the intensive margin (full-day vs. half-day), we find more additional reductions in parenting activities, but these are compensated for by lower education mothers during non-centre hours. Our findings represent novel evidence that activities in the home environment are a complement to centre-based care, highlighting a credible additional mechanism for child development effects of centre-based care.

中文翻译：

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以中心为基础的护理和育儿活动*

我们使用时间日记和德国母亲的调查数据来研究育儿活动和以中心为基础的护理之间的关系。虽然使用中心护理的母亲在孩子面前花费的时间明显减少，但我们发现在阅读、交谈和与孩子玩耍等特定活动上花费的时间差异相对较小或为零。这种结果模式对于受教育程度较低的母亲更为明显。活动没有大幅减少的原因有两个：（i）中心看护取代了父母陪伴孩子但做其他事情（如家务或休闲）的时间（直接影响很小），以及（ii）晚上变得相对更丰富（补偿性间接影响）。对于密集保证金（全天与半天），我们发现育儿活动进一步减少，但在非中心时间，受教育程度较低的母亲弥补了这些减少。我们的研究结果代表了新的证据，表明家庭环境中的活动是对基于中心的护理的补充，突出了基于中心的护理对儿童发展影响的可靠的额外机制。