Exploring the relationship between parents’ and children’s housework time in Spain

Abstract

Intergenerational transmission has been successfully employed in economic research to explain the persistence of certain economic behaviors across generations. This paper evaluates the relevance of this transmission process in the formation of gender roles during childhood. In particular, we analyze the relationship between parents’ and children’s housework allocation patterns. We propose a simple theoretical model that predicts that parents with a strong adherence to gender to traditional gender norms—as proxied by their division of household labor—are more likely to allocate housework to children in a way that reflects stereotypes of men’s and women’s domestic tasks. The empirical application is carried out with data from the 2002–2003 Spanish Time Use Survey. The sample restricts to two-parent households with at least one child aged 10–17 years. We find a significant positive correlation between a more egalitarian parents’ allocation of housework and a less asymmetrical distribution of domestic chores between sons and daughters.