Determinants of early attendance of ECEC for families with a Turkish migration background in four European countries

Abstract

Research has demonstrated educational inequalities for children with migrant background. This article focuses specifically on children and families with a Turkish immigration background in four European countries. Because of the great potential of high quality Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) for decreasing educational disparities, we examined associations between family characteristics (structural characteristics and acculturation attitudes) and early ECEC attendance (under the age of two) for families with a Turkish immigration background in England, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway (N = 943), using data from a standardized survey. Group-wise logistic regressions revealed differences among the predicting factors across countries. Nevertheless, factors that related to family socio-economic background were found to be associated with early ECEC attendance across all countries: higher levels of maternal education (England, Germany, The Netherlands), maternal employment (Norway), and more material deprivation (England) significantly predicted early ECEC use. In addition to these SES associations, factors related to socio-cultural adoption were associated with early ECEC use in three (out of four) countries. The findings can be partly related to country-specific ECEC characteristics.