Time Investments In Children Research Articles

Does less workload lead to more family educational care? Evidence from rural China

ABSTRACT Based on the theory of work – family balance, this paper employs a two-way fixed-effects model to explore the relationship between agricultural mechanization and investment in children’s education. The findings indicate that a county-level increase in the level of mechanization can stimulate financial and time investments in children’s education. Further heterogeneity analysis suggests that this impact is more pronounced on girls and primary school-aged children. The findings imply that reducing the labour burden on farmers will enable them to focus more on caring for their children.

The Developmental Course of Parental Time Investments in Children from Infancy to Late Adolescence

This study evaluated parent-child time from a child’s infancy to age 18 for mothers and fathers. Parent-child time remains a key input in child development. The theory on intergenerational transfers from parents to children posits that mother-child time and father-child time may adjust as children grow. This study used the nationally representative American Time Use Survey (2003–2019; N = 148,576) to study children ages 0–18 in a pooled cross-sectional sample. Using least squares regression, the study traced out parent-child contact, playing time, quality time, and one-on-one time, and tested differences between mothers and fathers. Mothers and fathers have provided substantial time investments in children of all ages. When children were young, mothers spent more time with children compared to fathers, highlighting a need for more nuanced discussions about differences in parenting between mothers and fathers. One-on-one time remained stable through late childhood and adolescence as parents prioritized focused interactions as children aged.

The minimum wage and parent time use.

This study used a differences-in-differences strategy with national time diary data from 2003 to 2018 to examine the effects of minimum wage changes on parents' time with children and in child-related activities. Findings indicate that a $1 increase in the minimum wage was associated with a small increase (2.6%) in the likelihood parents with one or more children under age 16 spent time actively caring for or helping children on weekends, and in more total time with children (a 2% increase in secondary child care time). In general, coefficients were larger for mothers' time use, particularly non-employed mothers, with potential implications for gender disparities in caregiving. Unmarried parents and parents of color showed increases in their time spent in activities related to children's health (~55% increase). Mothers showed an increase (8%) in the likelihood they spent any time in child education-related activities, and increases in child care time appeared concentrated among parents whose youngest child was 6-15 years of age. Findings suggest that increases in state minimum wages may lead to small increases in parents' time investments in children, with some variation among subgroups.

Child Citizenship Status in Immigrant Families and Differential Parental Time Investments in Siblings

This study describes how parental time investments in children in immigrant families vary according to children’s citizenship status. In families with multiple children, parents make allocation decisions about how to invest in each child. In immigrant households, a child’s citizenship status may shape parental time allocations because of how this status relates to a child’s prospects for socioeconomic mobility. It is unclear whether parents reinforce citizenship differences among siblings, compensate for these differences, or treat all siblings equally regardless of citizenship status. Moreover, past empirical research has not investigated differences in parental time investments in siblings with different citizenship statuses. To evaluate differential time investments in children based on citizenship, we conduct a quantitative analysis using data from the American Time Use Survey from 2003–2019 and focus on children in immigrant households with at least two children (N = 13,012). Our research shows that parents spend more time with children who have citizenship, but this result is primarily explained by a child’s age and birth order. Our study provides a basis for further inquiry on how legal contexts shaping socioeconomic mobility may influence micro-level family processes in immigrant households.

What is the source of the intergenerational correlation in earnings?

We use a dynastic model of household behavior to estimate and decompose the correlations in earnings across generations. The estimated model can explain 75% to 80% of the observed correlation in lifetime earnings between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and families across generations. We find that human-capital accumulation in the labor market, the nonlinear return to part-versus full-time work, and the return to parental time investment in children are the main forces driving the intergenerational correlation in earnings. The primary mechanism through which these three sources affect the intergenerational correlation in earnings is their effects on fertility and the division of labor within the household. Assortative mating magnifies these forces.

The Earned Income Tax Credit and Short-Term Changes in Parents' Time Investments in Children.

This study examined whether the addition of household resources via the receipt of the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) affects short-term patterns of parents’ time investments in children, including time spent engaged with children and in activities related to their education. Using difference-in-differences analyses that exploit seasonal variation in federal EITC outlays with nationally representative time-diary data from the 2003 to 2017 American Time Use Survey-Current Population Survey (ATUS-CPS; N = 61,355) merged with state-level data from the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR) National Welfare Database, I estimate the plausibly causal effects of predicted EITC receipt on various measures of parents’ time investments in their children. I examine parents’ time spent directly engaged with children in enriching activities like play and reading and in activities related to children’s education among a low-socioeconomic sample (parents with less than a college degree). I find few associations between monthly federal EITC outlays and immediate changes in parents’ time investments, although there was evidence that greater EITC outlays predicted small increases in mothers’ time spent reading with or to children, particularly among mothers with young children, but also small decreases in fathers’ time spent in activities with children, particularly school-age children. Findings suggest that increases in household resources, even relatively small and annual increases, may have short-term effects on parent–child interactions and time use.

Parent time investments in their children's learning during a policy-mandated shutdown: parent, child, and household influences

State-level policies in Ohio during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States involved physical school closures and work-from-home requirements when possible. Presumably, these policies and resulting impacts on homes with children would alter parent time investments in their children with respect to home-learning activities. In this study, we assessed parent time investments specific to home-learning activities with their children, and key predictors of these investments. Using data from a comprehensive survey completed by 559 caregivers of children (aged birth to 9 years) during a state-mandated stay-at-home order and widespread school closure, we assessed whether parent time investments in children's learning were associated with: (1) parents’ mental health and social connectedness, (2) children's level of emotional distress, and (3) household characteristics including chaos, social needs, and structure. Results indicate significant negative associations between each of parent loneliness, children's emotional distress, and household chaos with parent time investments in children's learning, controlling for parents’ socio-demographic and economic status. This suggests that parent time investments during the early stages of the pandemic were limited by a number of factors outside of socioeconomic resources. Further research is needed to understand the long-term effects of home environments, including parent time investments in children's learning, on child development during this unprecedented time in world history.

Parental Beliefs, Perceived Health Risks, and Time Investment in Children: Evidence from COVID-19

Parental Beliefs, Perceived Health Risks, and Time Investment in Children: Evidence from COVID-19

Kids eat free: School feeding and family spending on education

We examine the relationship between children's participation in the Nutrition Improvement Programme (NIP) and household education expenditure on students under compulsory education in rural China. We find that participating in the school feeding programme can significantly increase household investment in children's education, especially in-school education expenditure. This positive relationship may be mediated by family economic status, parental time investment in children's education, and children's health status and cognitive ability. There is considerable heterogeneity in the impacts of the school feeding programme across subsamples. In general, male children and children from disadvantaged families, such as those in low- and middle-income households, those with less educated parents, and those left behind by migrant parents, are likely to benefit more from the school feeding programme. We also find suggestive evidence of intrahousehold resource reallocation away from eligible female children in response to the school feeding programme.

Growing up unequal: Objective and subjective economic disparities and authoritarian parenting

BackgroundAlthough there is evidence of economic disparities in parents' financial and time investments in children, little existing empirical work has considered the disparities in authoritarian parenting, a risk for child maltreatment. Similarly, existing research has largely focused on the role of objective markers of socioeconomic status (SES), although perceived subjective social status (SSS) may be equally powerful in shaping disparities in parenting behaviors. DataThis article draws on 30 years of General Social Survey data to examine the association between objective socioeconomic status and subjective social status and parents' endorsement of authoritarian parenting practices. MethodsWe model the association between parents' SES and SSS and approval of authoritarian parenting practices estimated with odds ratios from logistic regressions and examine parental race as a potential moderator. ResultsWe find that SES and SSS are both associated with increased odds of endorsing authoritarian parenting, that SSS-based disparities are independent of SES, and that white parents' parenting may be more influenced by both SES and SSS than Black parents' parenting. ConclusionsThis work provides evidence that SES not only drives gaps in parental investments in children, but also gaps in their endorsement of authoritarian parenting. This is important because authoritarian parenting is not only directly associated with adverse outcomes for children, but is also associated with an increased risk for child maltreatment. It also expands the existing literature by showing that subjective measures of social status are important and distinct from objective measures of SES, and that these associations vary by race.

Dinner timing and human capital investments in children

Although previous research documents that having dinner together as a family positively relates to long-run child and family outcomes, one aspect of family dinner that has not been explored previously is the role that dinner timing may play in facilitating or hindering parental time investments in their children. We use time diary data for roughly 41,000 families from the nationally representative American Time Use Survey (2003–2019) to examine whether the timing of family dinner is correlated with differential parental time investments in children during the evening. We find that parents who start dinner as a family before the median time (6:15 p.m.) spend more quality time in the evening with their children, including more time reading and playing with their children. The relationship cannot be explained by observable family constraints, as it is stable regardless of parental labor force activity and the day of the week. Additionally, parents who eat dinner later do not reallocate quality time to other times of the day. These findings suggest that having dinner earlier may be an important mechanism facilitating parental time investments in children.

Labour Market Shocks During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Inequalities and Child Outcomes

We study the effect of negative labour market shocks borne by parents during the Covid-19 crisis on resource and time investments in children and the channels through which negative labour market shocks experienced by parents might affect children. Using data collected in the UK before and during the pandemic, we show that fathers and mothers that were already disadvantaged were more likely to have suffered negative earnings and employment shocks. These shocks had an immediate intergenerational impact: Children whose fathers reported an earnings drop to zero are significantly less likely to have received additional paid learning resources compared to similar children whose fathers did not experience a drop in earnings. Potentially offsetting this, they received about 30 more mins of parental help with schoolwork per day. Parental mental health is negatively affected when they experience earnings losses, and fathers who experience a full loss in earnings were less likely to quarrel or talk about things that matter with their kids than fathers who did not suffer earnings drops. The interactions between labour market shocks, parental investments and school closures are likely to have important implications for future inequality.

Parental Time Investment and Intergenerational Mobility

This paper constructs a quantitative model of intergenerational mobility in which lifetime income mobility is shaped by various channels including parental time investments in children. The calibrated model delivers positive educational gradients in parental time investment, as observed in the data, and also successfully accounts for untargeted distributional aspects of income mobility, captured in the income quintile transition matrix. The model implies that removing the positive educational gradients in parental time investment during the whole childhood would reduce intergenerational income persistence nearly by 40 percent. Policy experiments suggest that subsidies to childhood investments that can diminish positive educational gradients in parental time investments would increase intergenerational mobility, and that there are better ways of subsidizing investments to achieve greater mobility in terms of aggregate output and welfare.

Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

Historic increases in income inequality have coincided with widening class divides in parental investments of money and time in children. These widening class gaps are significant because parental investment is one pathway by which advantage is transmitted across generations. Using over three decades of micro-data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the American Heritage Time Use Survey linked to state-year measures of income inequality, we test the relationship between income inequality and class gaps in parental investment. We find robust evidence of wider class gaps in parental financial investments in children—but not parental time investments in children—when state-level income inequality is higher. We explore mechanisms that may drive the relationship between rising income inequality and widening class gaps in parental financial investments in children. This relationship is partially explained by the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution in state-years with higher inequality, which gives higher-earning households more money to spend on financial investments in children. In addition, we find evidence for contextual effects of higher income inequality that reshape parental preferences toward financial investment in children differentially by class.

Missing Time with Parents: Son Preference among Asians in the United States.

We study prevalence of son preference in families of East and South Asian origin living in the U.S. by investigating parental time investments in children using American Time Use Surveys. Estimates show that East and South Asian mothers spend an additional hour of quality time per day with their young (aged 0-2 years) sons than with young daughters; son-preference in mothers' time allocation declines as children get older. East and South Asian fathers' time with young children is gender neutral. We find gender specialization in time with children aged 6-17 with fathers spending more time with sons and mothers spending more time with daughters.

A simple dynastic economy with parental time investment in children’s patience

This article explores the dynamics of a general equilibrium when an individual’s rate of time preferences is endogenous in a dynastic competitive economy. We postulate that altruistic parents allocate time to make their children patient to improve their lifetime welfare. The paper shows multiplicity and instability of the competitive equilibrium. Local and global indeterminacy emerges due to complementarity between a balanced growth rate and parental time allocation. Indeterminacy implies income and growth disparity among generations. In contrast, a balanced growth path is unique and determinate in the corresponding social optimum. A unique social optimum introduces a potential policy instrument for stabilizing a cyclical competitive equilibrium.

Time or Money: The Relationship Between Educational Attainment, Income Contribution, and Time with Children Among Korean Fathers

Korean parents’ enthusiasm for and financial investment in children’s education are well known. However, parental time with children, particularly fathers’ time, and how it differs by parental education and income are not fully explored. Using the 2009 Korean Time Use Survey data, this paper examines how much time Korean fathers spend with children, how it differs by their education and income contribution to household, and which aspect Korean fathers choose to prioritize: time or money. In order to investigate a cross-couple effect, this paper also considers mothers’ time with children and their level of education. The sample is limited to married couples with the youngest child aged between 0 and 12. The stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicates that fathers’ education consistently shows a positive relationship with childcare time. Although fathers’ income contribution to household income has a negative effect on childcare time, positive effects of fathers’ education remain. Both mother’s education and childcare time increase fathers’ time with children. Korean fathers seem to juggle dual demands for money and time contribution and highly educated fathers tend to prioritize time over money. Given that time has become an important resource, different time investment in children by parental socioeconomic status may exacerbate social inequality.

Unconditional Child Benefits, Mothers’ Labor Supply, and Family Well-Being: Evidence from a Policy Reform

In many parts of the developed world, governments devote a significant share of public funds to unconditional family cash transfers in an attempt to promote the economic well-being of households. But how successful are such policies? Germany has one of the world's most generous child benefit systems, which was subject to a major reform in the mid-1990s. This article exploits the reform using a difference-indifferences approach. The main result suggests that child benefits lead to a substantial reduction of mothers' labor supply at the intensive margin. The result implies that the policy in question is less effective at improving family finances and, consequently, expensive for the taxpayer because increases in benefit receipt are accompanied by negative labor supply responses. However, suggestive evidence seems to support that parents improve their time investment in children.

What is the Source of the Intergenerational Correlation in Earnings?

This paper uses a dynastic model of household behavior to estimate and decomposed the correlations in earnings across generations. The estimate model can explain 75% to 80% of the observed correlation in lifetime earnings between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and families across generations. The main results are that the family and division of labor within the household are the main source of the correlation across generation and not just assorting mating. The interaction of human capital accumulation in labor market, the nonlinear return to part-time versus full-time work, and the return parental time investment in children are the main driving force behind the intergenerational correlation in earnings and assortative mating just magnify these forces.

Parental time investments in children

Numerous time use studies consistently find that highly educated parents spend more time with their children and more time on developmental activities than do less educated parents. Nevertheless, few empirical studies have examined whether and how these inequalities in parental caring are related to children’s educational performance. This study aims to provide a more complete picture of how parental time spent with children is related to children’s educational performance than offered by prior studies. Unique couple-based time diaries from cohabiting/married couples in Denmark combined with register data on children’s final exams in ninth grade were used to examine different associations between parental time investment in children and children’s educational performance. The study shows a significant overall association between parental time spent on developmental care and children’s educational performance. Moreover, additional analyses reveal that this association is mainly driven by low socioeconomic status children who receive more than 20 minutes of developmental care daily.