Authors

• Alasuutari, Maarit (University of Jyväskylä)
• Karila, Kirsti (University of Tampere)
• Mäkinen, Eleanora (University of Tampere)
• Paananen, Maiju (University of Tampere)
• Repo, Katja (University of Tampere)
• Hynynen, Kaisa (University of Tampere)

Keywords

care in the community, child care, children, cultural pluralism, day care, family cohesion, family life, parental benefits, parental role, parents

Abstract

The data consists of information collected from parents of multicultural families on childcare arrangements and early childhood education solutions. The data is part of the multidisciplinary project "Finnish Childcare Policies: In/Equality in Focus" (CHILDCARE), which is being implemented by the Universities of Jyväskylä and Tampere and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

In the interviews, questions were initially asked about the everyday life of the child and the family. Then they were asked about the rationale behind the childcare solutions, such as how and why the current solution was chosen. This was followed by questions about the support and help respondents had received in relation to childcare and its solutions. They were also asked about the reconciliation of work and family life and about childcare-related decision-making within the family. Finally, they were asked about current issues in the family leave system and early childhood education, such as the halving of childcare allowance for parents, and asked to think about the future, what life might be like for a child at the age of 4.

Seven of the interviews are in Finnish and five in English. Background data are classified by educational background, age and municipality classification. The data were organised into an easy to use HTML version at FSD.