Parental Demands for Childcare Services of Infants and Toddlers in China Under the Three-Child Policy

The Chinese government announced the three-child policy on May 31, 2021, in order to alleviate the aging population problem. Under the three-child policy, parental demands for childcare services increased, but the degree of socialization of childcare services in China was low. The qualitative research was used with a content analysis approach based on the data acquired using in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 20 groups of parents who were planning to have a third child and were looking for childcare services for their children. Participating parental demands for childcare services covered five themes: two sides of a coin for a family; environment and facilities requirements; professionalism needs; instruction and guidance requirements; and public childcare services system demands. The results of the cross-case comparison showed that different factors, such as family income, educational background of parents, differences in gender roles of parents, and whether grandparents involved in childcare influence parental demands for the length, content, type, and price of childcare services. It is essential for the government to consider professionalism, universality, systematization, convenience, and diversification in the process of accelerating the socialization of childcare services for infants and toddlers under the three-child policy in China.