育嬰假對於幼兒發展的影響：臺灣幼兒發展資料庫之運用

Abstract

近年來，臺灣面臨少子化困境，新生兒的數目逐年下降，在2020年首次出現了人口負成長，使得臺灣在未來可能會遇到消費力降低、政府稅收減少、人才短缺等問題。政府在推出各式政策鼓勵生育的同時，亦須思考如何使每個出生的幼兒獲得妥善照護，才可能促使人口的「量」跟「質」同時提升，讓臺灣持續保持競爭力。過去研究指出，高品質的早期幼兒照護能夠使他們在未來有更好的發展，造成的影響包含了幼兒健康、智力、未來的勞動收入、犯罪率、教育程度等，而育嬰假（Parental Leave）是實務上常用來做為鼓勵生育、同時提供幼兒照護的政策之一。本研究使用「臺灣幼兒發展調查資料庫」之統計資料，探討育嬰假對於36月齡和48月齡幼兒發展的影響，使用主成分分析（Principal components analysis, PCA）篩選幼兒發展變項，並透過傾向分數配對法（Propensity Score Matching, PSM）處理內生性問題，以估計育嬰假之影響程度。\n研究發現在t檢定之下，有經歷父母請育嬰假的幼兒各項發展均較佳，但納入控制變數以及經過傾向分數配對法處理後，育嬰假對於幼兒發展幾乎沒有顯著相關。其他因素如女性幼兒、母親國籍為臺灣人、是家中第一個出生的幼兒、父母教育程度愈高和家庭月收入中位數以上，與幼兒發展具有顯著正相關。請育嬰假與36月齡到48月齡的進步幅度亦無顯著關聯。Logit模型發現教育程度較高的母親較可能請育嬰假，本研究推論這樣的母親在請育嬰假的同時也運用各種資源與努力促進幼兒的發展，可能解釋了為何在完整的迴歸模型中，育嬰假與幼兒發展的關係不再顯著。

In recent years, Taiwan’s birth rate has been decreasing. In 2020, the negative population growth occurred for the first time and may induce problems such as consumption declines, lower government tax revenues, and talent shortages in the future. While the government uses various pronatalist policies, it is important to make sure that the “quantity” and “quality” of population can be improved at the same time. Studies have pointed out that the investment in early childhood can lead to better development in the future, including child health, intelligence, future labor income, crime rate, education level, etc. Parental leave is one of the most commonly used policies to encourage childbirth and provide child care. Using the data from “Kids in Taiwan: National Longitudinal Study of Child Development and Care” to explore how parents’ choice of taking the parental leave relates to preschoolers’ developmental outcomes at 36 months old and 48 months old. This study also utilizes the principal components analysis (PCA) to select variables for the developmental outcomes and uses propensity score matching (PSM) to mitigate the potential threat of endogeneity from the ordinary least square (OLS) estimations.\nPreschoolers with parents taking parental leave show better developmental outcomes in t tests. After controlling for additional variables and applying the PSM, there is almost no statistically significant relationship between parental leave and developmental outcomes. Estimation results suggest that other factors including female children, Taiwanese mothers, firstborns, higher education level of parents and higher monthly income are associated with better developmental outcomes. The progress between 36 and 48 months old is also not significantly correlated with parental leave status. According to the Logit model, higher educated mothers are more likely to take the parental leave, and these mothers may also utilize more resources to promote children’s development. This may explain why we do not observe significant correlations with parental leave in the regression models.