The parental relationship as experienced by parents whose children are in daycare

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore how parents whose children are in daycare experience the parent-child relationship. Literature in this field tends to focus on the reasons why parents send their children to daycare and what was considered to be high-quality daycare, hence the parental relationship in this context tends to be overlooked (Degotardi et al., 2018; Sollars, 2020). Six working parents whose children were aged between three months to three years of age and in daycare were recruited. Data was collected using semistructured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four superordinate themes were generated, and each theme was expanded further into sub-themes. Findings suggest that attendance in daycare did not significantly impact the parent-child relationship. However, important factors were identified. There were small changes in the children’s behaviours which did improve the parent-child relationship. The participants observed that spending some time apart from their child avoided the buildup of tensions and stress. Furthermore, it was discussed how the participants experienced separation anxiety as they found it challenging to leave their child at daycare and initially struggled. For future research, it would be salient to conduct a qualitative study on the parent-child relationship from the father’s perspective. Moreover, relevant to observe the parental relationship through the perspective of the daycare carers.