The Determinants of Educational Childcare time Among Rural Farmers in Nigeria

The study looked at the childcare time determinants among parents in rural and urban dichotomy basis in three different states in Nigeria. We analyze the relationship between parents’ education and the time devoted to childcare activities, with a focus on activities aimed at increasing the child’s human capital. We used households with opposite-sex couples having children under age 18, from Katsina, Ekiti and Delta States. This study relies on cross sectional data collected randomly from 600 households over a two months period using well structured questionnaire because The Multinational Time Use data do not exit in Nigeria. By estimating a seemingly unrelated regressions tobit model, we find that mothers’ education is associated with an increase in the time devoted to educational childcare by fathers in Ekiti State only, while it is associated with an increase in the time devoted to educational childcare by mothers in Katsina and Delta States. The time devoted to educational childcare by both parents is higher in the urban than in the rural population. We also find that fathers’ education has no effect on the time devoted to educational childcare time by either parent. It seems that what really matters in determining the time devoted to educational childcare at the couple level is the educational level of the mother.