The Impact of Household Income on Extracurricular Activity Participation:

<p>In Japan, many children participate in organized, adult-led educational activities outside the school system. As sociological studies consistently indicate that children with higher household income and highly educated parents are more likely to enroll in such activities, there are educational opportunity gaps outside of school hours. Despite the importance of understanding the inequality of learning opportunities, previous studies have relied only on cross-sectional data and have not clarified whether parents invest differently in such activities depending on their socioeconomic status when their children become older. In addition, the literature has not assessed the impact of changes in economic capital, which is at the root of the forms of capital (i.e., economic, cultural, and social) that individuals strategically employ. Thus, to determine the role of economic capital in children’s participation in organized activities outside school, this study investigates (1) whether the strength of the relationship between children’s school age and their participation varies according to household income and parental educational backgrounds and (2) whether changes in household income are related to changes in organized activity participation. Specifically, this study uses three waves of data (ages 4.5, 7 , and 10, belonging to kindergarten or nursely school, first grade, and fourth grade, respectively) from the Longitudinal Survey of Babies in the 21st Century, conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The primary dependent variable in this analysis is the number of types of organized activities (e.g., academic lessons, music, and swimming) in which children participated at each wave. This variable represents one aspect of “concerted cultivation” (Lareau 2003, 2011): a cultural logic demonstrated by middle-class parents, who tend to organize their children’s lives so as to cultivate talents and encourage skill development. As a supplemental means of analysis, the amount of money spent on raising a child (including fees for organized activities) was also examined.<BR><BR>Results derived from a hybrid fixed-effects model empirically highlighted the important role of household income in the unequal distribution of learning opportunities outside the school system. Firstly, children with higher household income are more likely to enroll in a larger number of types of outside-school activities when other factors are held constant. Secondly, a random slope of time on the outcome significantly varies, and annual household income and parental educational backgrounds partly explain this variation. Finally, when controlling for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, changes in household income are, albeit modestly, associated with changes in the number of types of extracurricular activities. This result is also obtained when expenses are assessed as the dependent variable. These empirical results indicate that, when a child becomes older, parents with higher levels of income and education tend to leverage their economic capital to provide a larger number of types of organized educational opportunities for their child. Additionally, the findings imply the importance of parents’ economic capital in determining the extent of learning opportunities to which a child is exposed outside the school system. In conclusion, this study empirically demonstrates the importance of economic capital that enables parents to practice “concerted cultivation,” presumably to cultivate the child’s talents and skills.</p>