Abstract
BACKGROUNDHow children spend their day is closely linked to their social and developmental outcomes. Children’s time use is associated with their parents’ educational and economic capital, making time use a potential reproduction channel for socioeconomic inequalities.OBJECTIVEWe evaluate the correlation of natal-family economic resources, parents’ education, and children’s daily time use in Japan.METHODSAnalysing data from a 2006 Japanese time use survey, we use natal-family income, parental education, and the interaction between them to predict in-school and afterschool study time, leisure time, and sleep time for children aged 10–18.RESULTSChildren from families with higher incomes and more-educated parents spend a longer time studying after school and less time on sleep and leisure. Parental income and mothers’ and fathers’ education are all independently associated with children’s daily patterns.CONCLUSIONOur findings suggest that available resources and parental education are important in shaping children’s daily routines and, through these routines, their eventual socioeconomic outcomes.CONTRIBUTIONThis is the first article to simultaneously assess the impact of income and parental education on children’s study, leisure, and sleep time. It is also the first paper to analyse children’s time use and their natal-family characteristics in Japan.
Highlights
Do children from families of different socioeconomic status spend their time differently? Can some of the well-established educational performance gap across socioeconomic groups (Crawford et al 2017; Jæger and Breen 2016; Putnam 2015) be explained by the fact that children from richer families spend more time studying? And if wealthier children spend more time studying, do they spend less on leisure and sleep?How children spend their time is associated with a range of developmental outcomes
CONTRIBUTION This is the first article to simultaneously assess the impact of income and parental education on children’s study, leisure, and sleep time
School study time is not significantly correlated with income, but sleep time is, albeit with some statistical noise
Summary
Analysing data from a 2006 Japanese time use survey, we use natal-family income, parental education, and the interaction between them to predict in-school and afterschool study time, leisure time, and sleep time for children aged 10‒18. RESULTS Children from families with higher incomes and more-educated parents spend a longer time studying after school and less time on sleep and leisure. Parental income and mothers’ and fathers’ education are all independently associated with children’s daily patterns
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