abstract: 'Growing evidence suggests that children''s participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC), especially center-based services, is associated with positive outcomes, particularly for children over one year of age and children of low socioeconomic backgrounds. This signals an important opportunity for reducing socioeconomic disparities in young children''s development. Many western countries have adopted policies to encourage maternal employment, facilitate ECEC service use, or both, often focusing on disadvantaged families. Yet few studies to date have tested the impact of these policies for reducing socioeconomic selection into ECEC. This study integrates data from five cohorts of children living in different western, high-income countries (UK, USA, Netherlands, Canada, and Norway; total N = 21,437). We compare participation rates and socioeconomic selection into ECEC across the different policy contexts in infancy (5-9 months) and early childhood (36-41 months). Policy environments where parents had access to at least 6 months of paid maternity/parental leave had lower ECEC participation in infancy but higher participation in early childhood. Higher participation rates were also associated with universal ECEC subsidies (i.e., not targeted to low-income families). In general, low income, low maternal education and having more than one child were associated with reduced use of ECEC. Selection effects related to low income and number of children were reduced in countries with universal ECEC subsidies when out-of-pocket fees were income-adjusted or reduced for subsequent children, respectively. Most socioeconomic selection effects were reduced in Norway, the only country to invest more than 1\% of its GDP into early childhood. Nevertheless, low maternal education was consistently associated with reduced use of ECEC services across all countries. Among families using services however, there were few selection effects for the type of ECEC setting (center-based vs. non-center-based), particularly in early childhood. In sum, this comparative study suggests wide variations in ECEC participation that can be linked to the policy context, and highlights key policy elements which may reduce socioeconomic disparities in ECEC use.' affiliation: 'Petitclerc, A (Corresponding Author), Univ Coll Dublin, UCD Geary Inst, Dublin, Ireland. Petitclerc, A (Corresponding Author), Columbia Univ, Teachers Coll, New York, NY 10027 USA. Petitclerc, A (Corresponding Author), Northwestern Univ, Feinberg Sch Med, Dept Med Social Sci, 633 N St Clair,Suite 1900, Chicago, IL 60611 USA. Petitclerc, Amelie; Doyle, Orla, Univ Coll Dublin, UCD Geary Inst, Dublin, Ireland. Petitclerc, Amelie, Columbia Univ, Teachers Coll, New York, NY 10027 USA. Petitclerc, Amelie, Northwestern Univ, Feinberg Sch Med, Dept Med Social Sci, 633 N St Clair,Suite 1900, Chicago, IL 60611 USA. Cote, Sylvana, Univ Montreal, Dept Social \& Prevent Med, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Cote, Sylvana; Herba, Catherine, CHU Ste Justine Res Ctr, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Cote, Sylvana; Boivin, Michel, Tomsk State Univ, Inst Genet Neurobiol \& Social Fdn Child Dev, Tomsk, Russia. Doyle, Orla, Univ Coll Dublin, UCD Sch Econ, Dublin, Ireland. Burchinal, Margaret, Univ North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC USA. Herba, Catherine, Univ Quebec, Dept Psychol, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Herba, Catherine; Tiemeier, Henning, Erasmus MC Med Ctr Rotterdam, Sophia Childrens Hosp, Dept Child \& Adolescent Psychiat, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Zachrisson, Henrik Daae, Univ Oslo, Norwegian Ctr Child Behav Dev, Oslo, Norway. Zachrisson, Henrik Daae, Univ Oslo, Fac Educ Sci, Ctr Educ Measurement, Oslo, Norway. Boivin, Michel, Univ Laval, Sch Psychol, Quebec City, PQ G1K 7P4, Canada. Tremblay, Richard E., Univ Coll Dublin, Sch Publ Hlth \& Populat Sci, Dublin, Ireland. Tremblay, Richard E., Univ Montreal, Dept Pediat, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Tremblay, Richard E., Univ Montreal, Dept Psychiat, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Tremblay, Richard E., Univ Montreal, Dept Psychol, Montreal, PQ, Canada. Tiemeier, Henning; Jaddoe, Vincent, Erasmus MC, Univ Med Ctr Rotterdam, Dept Epidemiol, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Raat, Hein, Erasmus MC, Univ Med Ctr Rotterdam, Dept Publ Hlth, Rotterdam, Netherlands.' article-number: '3' author: Petitclerc, Amelie and Cote, Sylvana and Doyle, Orla and Burchinal, Margaret and Herba, Catherine and Zachrisson, Henrik Daae and Boivin, Michel and Tremblay, Richard E. and Tiemeier, Henning and Jaddoe, Vincent and Raat, Hein author-email: amelie.petitclerc@northwestern.edu author_list: - family: Petitclerc given: Amelie - family: Cote given: Sylvana - family: Doyle given: Orla - family: Burchinal given: Margaret - family: Herba given: Catherine - family: Zachrisson given: Henrik Daae - family: Boivin given: Michel - family: Tremblay given: Richard E. - family: Tiemeier given: Henning - family: Jaddoe given: Vincent - family: Raat given: Hein da: '2023-09-28' doi: 10.1186/s40723-017-0028-8 eissn: 2288-6729 files: [] issn: 1976-5681 journal: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION POLICY keywords: 'Early childhood education and care; Center-based child-care; Crosscountry analysis; Socioeconomic factors; Family policies' keywords-plus: 'PHYSICAL AGGRESSION; BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS; NONMATERNAL CARE; EMPLOYMENT; MOTHERS; ACHIEVEMENT; WORK; RACE/ETHNICITY; COHORT; LEAVE' language: English month: JAN 23 number-of-cited-references: '66' orcid-numbers: 'Côté, Sylvana M./0000-0001-7944-0647 Tiemeier, Henning/0000-0002-4395-1397 Doyle, Orla/0000-0001-7197-8012 Boivin, Michel/0000-0001-8621-9844' papis_id: 1308aa33f4ed76e18ced1fa0612cfe33 ref: Petitclerc2017whouses researcherid-numbers: 'Côté, Sylvana M./T-4600-2019 Boivin, Michel/J-3652-2013 Tiemeier, Henning/H-6534-2019 Cote, Silvana Maria/O-1356-2014 Tremblay, Richard E./O-1360-2014 ' times-cited: '28' title: Who uses early childhood education and care services? Comparing socioeconomic selection across five western policy contexts type: article unique-id: WOS:000396482100001 usage-count-last-180-days: '2' usage-count-since-2013: '29' volume: '11' web-of-science-categories: Education \& Educational Research year: '2017'