The proportion of “nurses and kindergarten teachers” as the usual caregivers reached 90%.
Comparing the data for the usual caregivers with that in the 4th survey (aged 42 months), the proportion of “teachers in kindergartens” substantially increased from 16.4% to 51.2%, partly affected by the fact that infants born in July had reached the minimum age required to be admitted into kindergartens (the junior year) by the time of the 5th survey. As a result, the rate of “nurses and kindergarten teachers” hit 90%. There was no major change in the rates for parents and grandparents (Table 1).
Table 1 Changes in the usual caregivers (multiple answers)
| Total | Usual caregivers (multiple answers) | |||||||||||
| Mother | Father | Grandparent | Nurses and kindergarten teachers |
Others | ||||||||
| Maternal grandmother |
Maternal grandfather |
Paternal grandmother |
Paternal grandfather |
Nurses, etc. |
Kinder- garten teachers |
|||||||
| Total of the 4th survey | 100.0 | 91.9 | 44.5 | 24.0 | 13.4 | 5.3 | 11.0 | 4.8 | 50.1 | 33.9 | 16.4 | 1.7 |
| Total of the 5th survey | 100.0 | 90.6 | 46.5 | 24.0 | 13.4 | 5.4 | 10.9 | 5.0 | 90.2 | 40.0 | 51.2 | 1.8 |
| Born in January | 100.0 | 90.5 | 47.1 | 24.5 | 13.8 | 5.8 | 11.1 | 5.0 | 98.3 | 39.6 | 59.9 | 1.7 |
| Born in July | 100.0 | 90.7 | 45.9 | 23.5 | 13.0 | 5.0 | 10.8 | 5.0 | 82.2 | 40.5 | 42.6 | 1.8 |
| Notes: | 1) The figures are based on the total responses to the 4th and 5th surveys (total number of replies: 38,880). 2) The total includes the number of samples with “unknown” concerning usual caregivers. 3) “Nurses, etc.” includes “nurses, etc. at nursery schools” and “nursery mothers or baby sitters”. |