Do under-3s think of day-care centers as “home from home”?: Psychoanalytic investigations into primary socialization in day-care centers taking the German situation as an example

Abstract

The authors note a contradiction between empirical findings and the dismissive conclusion of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (FMFASWY) that the treatment of children in early day care will not affect their relationship to their mother or entail any serious damage for their future. They use this contradiction as an opportunity to discuss the social function of early childhood socialization in day care. They come to the impression that the FMFASWY, in its assessment of research on day-care centers, was also intuitively guided by sociopolitical interests insofar as the emergence of a social character satisfying current social requirements is favored more by primary socialization in day care than in families.

Key words:

• socialization
• family
• child-minder
• day care

Notes

1 We have chosen to discuss this subject against the background of the situation in Germany. However, the situation in other countries seems to be similar. In the USA, for example, in 2012, 40.5% (1,614,000) of all 3-year-old children (3,983,000) were cared for by other people, 96% (1,552,000) in nursery schools and 4% (62,000) in families. Around 51.0% (823,000) of the children were in full-time day care (Digest of Education Statistics, 2012).

2 Hahn (1982) found that, by the end of the 1970s, the traditional image of the ultimately decisive husband was no longer valid for almost 60% of the respondents.

3 According to a study of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2011 working fathers spent on average 37 minutes a day (working mothers 66 minutes a day) on activities (including caring) with their young children (Familie.de, 2018).

4 Around 20% of 2–7-year-olds, 46% of 8–12-year-olds, and 56% of 13–17-year-olds have televisions in their bedrooms (Gentile & Walsh, 2002). According to different investigations, estimates indicate that the average American child aged 2–17 years spends 36–44 hours a week watching television (Gentile & Walsh, 2002). In 2010 in Germany, children aged 5–7 years spent 149 minutes a day sitting in front of a TV predominantly alone; in 2017, children aged 6–13 spent 48 minutes a day online, and 20% of children aged 10–12 had their own television, 67% their own computer or tablet, and 67% their own smartphone (Internationales Zentralinstitut, 2018).

5 On average, 15-year-old children spent 140 minutes every day playing computer games (Der Spiegel, 2009).

6 For those who, in the feminist debate, hold the position of a self-realization of women analogous to that of men, we remind the reader of Horkheimer's (1949, p. 389) words: “Women have paid for their limited admission into the economic world of the male by taking over the behavior patterns of a thoroughly reified society … They undertake motherhood as a profession, and their attitude towards the children is matter of fact and pragmatic … She [the mother] ceases to be a mitigating intermediary between him [the child] and the cold reality and becomes just another mouthpiece of the latter.”

7 The staff-to-child ratio is a calculated value, which, as the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (2015, p. 4) notes, does not reflect the “actual ‘caregiver-child relationship’.” Its calculation is based on so-called “full-time care equivalents” (of children) and “full-time employment equivalents” (of the active caregivers), in which downtime as sickness, holiday periods, or training is not considered.

8 On July 24, 2015, FMFASWY (German Federal Ministry, 2015) stated that, in 2014, 44,900 private caregivers were in service, and that from 2016 to 2018, €7.5 million per year would be made available for family day care by individuals. In contrast to 2014, €5.4 billion was invested in the expansion of day-care centres, and from 2015 €845 million per year was to be available for their further expansion (announced by FMFASWY on November 11, 2015). It is proudly emphasized that in March 2015 there were 54,536 child care centres nationwide, 1121 facilities more than at the same time the previous year, that more new facilities had been created than in the same period in the previous year, and that, given the 42.3% of parents who expressed a need for such care, the demand for childcare places was not being covered nationwide. Meanwhile, FMFASWY has announced a preference to promote child care centres that offer round-the-clock care (Der Spiegel, 2018).

9 For small children from certain socially better-off families, a qualified day-care centre could also represent the better evil. One teacher has reported that the number of parents who are no longer able to prepare breakfast or a sandwich for their child is increasing.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siegfried Zepf

Authors

Siegfried Zepf, Univ.-Prof. em., MD, was from 1992 to 2002 director of the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine of the University Clinics of the Saarland, Germany. He is a training analyst in the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychoanalyse (DPG) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychoanalyse, Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Tiefenpsychologie (DGPT), and has published numerous books and articles in scientific journals. (http://www.siegfriedzepf.de)

Dietmar Seel

Dietmar Seel, Dipl. – Psych., has since 2000 been a practicing psychoanalyst in Saarbrücken, Germany. He was formerly a scientific assistant at the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine of the University Clinics of the Saarland, and is a member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychoanalyse (DPG) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychoanalyse, Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Tiefenpsychologie (DGPT).