Social Inequality, Child Care Attendance, and School Start in Germany

This study investigates how far attending child care institutions can reduce delayed school entries in Germany. The influence of child care institutions should be stronger when children attend them at younger ages, and it should vary according to the children’s social origins. When parents’ cultural resources are low, care institutions should have large additional positive effects on children’s development. The empirical analysis of over 1,100 children and their parents taking part in the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) showed compensatory effects of early child care attendance that enabled children with low-educated parents to avoid delayed school entry at Age 6.