Abstract:

The choice of the right type of kindergarten is an important step in the development of the child, because in this environment the foundations of its attitude to the world and life, intrinsic motivation to work and performance, various competencies, both cognitive and social, and much more are formed. In addition, different types of kindergartens, and thus different types of preschool education, interact with the child in different ways and can thus suit different children's personalities. However, this decision is not taken by the child itself, but by its parents and is thus influenced more by the specifics of the parents themselves. To understand better what influences parents' choices in selecting a traditional or alternative type of kindergarten (such as Montessori, Waldorf, religious etc.), we examined which socioeconomic characteristics of parents and their families are related to this choice. The study involved parents of 896 children from the longitudinal cohort study aged on average 6.49 years (95% CI, 6.46–6.51), with 152 (17%) of these children attending an alternative kindergarten. Data were analyzed using Pearson's chi-square test, ordinal variables were further analyzed using Cochran-Armitage Test for Trend, and pseudo-continuous variables were also assessed using Spearman's correlation. The results showed that the choice of the type of kindergarten is related to the parents' education, the type of child care and the number/order of siblings. In the context of education, with higher education, there was an increasing preference for alternative kindergartens, especially for parents with a university degree (std. residuals = 8.15, 8.32, and 8.17 for father's, mother's, and both parents' median education, respectively). Considering the family setting, we found that the less a child lives regularly with both parents, the less likely s/he attends an alternative kindergarten. This was most pronounced for children living with only one parent (std. residuals = 2.56). Finally, in terms of the number and order of siblings, the results indicated that parents are more likely to choose alternative kindergarten for later children, specifically for the third and next child (r = 0.12 for number of siblings and std. residuals = 2.78 for third and next child). Other characteristics of parents and families (type of father's and mother's employment, subjectively perceived socioeconomic status and presence of socio-cultural problems in the family) were not related to the choice of kindergarten type. These findings shed light on which parents' characteristics may influence their decision-making when choosing a kindergarten for their child. Given that alternative pre-school education may be a better choice for the development of some children for whom parents have chosen a traditional kindergarten, it would be beneficial to increase parents' awareness of these alternative options, especially among the group of parents with lower (secondary) education. The question for further research remains whether this preference for traditional preschools among parents with secondary education and single parents is related to a lower awareness of the options, the financial demands of alternative preschool education, the lack of time for the child (when alternative education may create greater pressure on parents' activities with the child), or other factors.

Keywords:

Types of kindergarten, sociodemographic variables, alternative preschool education.