This study focuses on Switzerland where child-care is limited in offer and costly. It examines what child-care patterns
parents of 0- to 4-years old children use; and, how different arrangements relate to several domains of mothers’ and fathers’
cognitive and affective subjective well-being (SWB). A major contribution of the present study is the distinction between
child-care provided by parents, grandparents, relatives, formal institutions and mixed arrangements. Based on data from the
Swiss Household Panel (SHP) from 2002 to 2017, multilevel regression models are applied to estimate the relationship
between child-care arrangements and both parents’ SWB. The results demonstrate that grandparental care relates positively
to both parents’ SWB: Compared to grandparental child-care, relatives and formal or mixed child-care arrangements tend to
decrease most of the satisfaction dimensions. Formal child-care and child-care provided by relatives as well as mixed
arrangements relate to a decrease in positive affect. Negative affect is not significantly associated to the different child-care
arrangements.