Parental socio-economic status and childcare quality: Early inequalities in educational opportunity?

This study examines whether children from potentially disadvantaged families attend early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers of lower quality compared to more advantaged children in the universal and strongly state-subsidized ECEC system in Germany. We combine the representative German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) with the 2014 K2ID- SOEP extension study on ECEC quality. We run linear and logistic regression models of 32 quality indicators based on 818 children who attend 749 ECEC groups in 647 centers. The findings provide evidence that migrant children and in particular children of low-educated parents experience moderately lower quality levels on some structural and orientation quality characteristics. Children from income poor or single parent households receive lower quality on few, hardly observable characteristics. In conclusion, financial resources may be less critical for families' use of high-quality ECEC than knowledge, preferences, or networks which are stratified by educational qualifications and culture.