Educational Gradient in Parental Involvement

<p>Educational differences in norms and socially constructed preferences regarding child rearing may lead to educational differences in how time is allocated for paid work, housework, and children. This paper explores the relationship between parent-child activities and parental time in paid work and housework, and whether these relationships differ by parental education, using a sample of married parents from the National Family Research of Japan 2018. For less-educated mothers, the frequency of educational activities was positively related to the frequency of housework, however, no such relationship was observed among more educated mothers. This suggests that while more educated mothers try to put aside time to teach their children from their daily housework routine, less educated mothers tend to perform educational activities in the natural flow of life. For less educated fathers, frequency of educational activities was negatively related to their hours of paid work; however, no such relationship was observed among more educated fathers. This suggests that more educated fathers strive to devote time to their children even when working long hours. These results imply that more educated parents value active involvement with their children, which leads them to prioritize parentchild activities, particularly educational activities. Furthermore, given the lack of progress in reducing fathersʼ working hours, the emergence of more educated Japanese fathers, who devote themselves to both paid work and educational activities of their children, suggests possible widening disparities among children in terms of parental time investment.</p>