scholarly journals Incomplete markets and parental investments in children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brant Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Incomplete Markets ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Investments In Children

Public Investments and Class Gaps in Parents’ Developmental Expenditures

2022 ◽  
pp. 000312242110699
Author(s):  
Margot I. Jackson ◽  
Daniel Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Family Income ◽  
Public Investment ◽  
State Level ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Public Investments ◽  
Investments In Children

Families and governments are the primary sources of investment in children, providing access to basic resources and other developmental opportunities. Recent research identifies significant class gaps in parental investments that contribute to high levels of inequality by family income and education. State-level public investments in children and families have the potential to reduce class inequality in children’s developmental environments by affecting parents’ behavior. Using newly assembled administrative data from 1998 to 2014, linked to household-level data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we examine how public-sector investment in income support, health, and education is associated with the private expenditures of low- and high-SES parents on developmental items for children. Are class gaps in parental investments in children narrower in contexts of higher public investment for children and families? We find that more generous public spending for children and families is associated with significantly narrower class gaps in private parental investments. Furthermore, we find that equalization is driven by bottom-up increases in low-SES households’ developmental spending in response to progressive state investments of income support and health, and by top-down decreases in high-SES households’ developmental spending in response to universal state investment in public education.

scholarly journals The Summer Parental Investment Gap? Socioeconomic Gaps in the Seasonality of Parental Expenditures and Time with School-Age Children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orestes P Hastings ◽  
Joe LaBriola
Keyword(s):  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
Summer Learning ◽  
American Time Use Survey ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Time Use Survey ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
New Evidence

Scholars have theorized how private parental investments of money and time in children may respond differentially to the loss of the public provision of schooling during the summer, based on parental socioeconomic status (SES). Importantly, the widening of SES gaps in parental investments of money and time in children during the summer could generate SES gaps in children’s learning during the summer. We investigate the seasonality of SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time using the 1996–2018 Consumer Expenditure Survey and 2003–2019 American Time Use Survey. We find SES gaps in parental investments of both money and time during the summer and SES gaps in expenditures are larger in the summer than during non-summer months. We find little evidence that these gaps have grown substantially over time, but we do find these gaps are larger for younger school-age children than for older school-age children. This research provides new evidence regarding the link between public and parental investments in children, addresses a key mechanism underlying the debate about the summer learning gap, and provides new evidence on how parents may target investments in children towards the ages when they are most consequential.

scholarly journals The production of within-family inequality: Insights and implications of integrating genetic data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Fletcher ◽  
Yuchang Wu ◽  
Zijie Zhao ◽  
Qiongshi Lu
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Sibling Pairs ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
Family Based ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Family Inequality

AbstractThe integration of genetic data within large-scale social and health surveys provides new opportunities to test long standing theories of parental investments in children and within-family inequality. Genetic predictors, called polygenic scores, allow novel assessments of young children’s abilities that are uncontaminated by parental investments, and family-based samples allow indirect tests of whether children’s abilities are reinforced or compensated. We use over 16,000 sibling pairs from the UK Biobank to test whether the relative ranking of siblings’ polygenic scores for educational attainment is consequential for actual attainments. We find strong evidence of compensatory processes, on average, where the association between genotype and phenotype of educational attainment is reduced by over 20% for the higher-ranked sibling compared to the lower-ranked sibling. These effects are most pronounced in high socioeconomic status areas. We find no evidence that similar processes hold in the case of height or for relatives who are not full biological siblings (e.g. cousins). Our results provide a new use of polygenic scores to understand processes that generate within-family inequalities and also suggest important caveats to causal interpretations the effects of polygenic scores using siblingdifference designs.

Social Class, Gender, and Contemporary Parenting Standards in the United States: Evidence from a National Survey Experiment

Social Forces ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Ishizuka
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Class ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Intensive Mothering ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Child Centered ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
And Gender

AbstractSocial scientists have documented a substantial increase in both mothers’ and fathers’ time spent with children since the 1960s in the United States. Yet parenting behaviors remain deeply divided by social class and gender, with important implications for the reproduction of inequality. To understand rising parental investments in children and persistent class and gender differences in parenting, popular accounts and academic studies have pointed to an apparent cultural shift toward norms of time-intensive, child-centered parenting, particularly for mothers and among middle-class parents. However, prior research has produced inconclusive evidence relating to social class, gender, and contemporary parenting norms. Using data from an original vignette survey experiment conducted with a nationally representative sample of more than 3,600 parents, this study examines cultural norms related to parenting elementary school-aged children, considering how both social class and gender shape views about good parenting. Results indicate that parents of different social classes express remarkably similar support for intensive mothering and fathering across a range of situations, whether sons or daughters are involved. These findings suggest that cultural norms of child-centered, time-intensive mothering and fathering are now pervasive, pointing to high contemporary standards for parental investments in children.

scholarly journals Contributions of Research Based on the PSID Child Development Supplement

2018 ◽  
Vol 680 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-131
Author(s):  
Sandra L. Hofferth ◽  
David S. Bickham ◽  
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn ◽  
Pamela E. Davis-Kean ◽  
Wei-Jun Jean Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Healthy Child ◽  
Development Time ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Investments In Children

This article summarizes important contributions of the Child Development Supplement to the PSID (PSID-CDS) to knowledge in child development, time use, media use, and health. The PSID-CDS began in 1997, surveying 2,394 households, including 3,563 children; three waves of data on the first cohort were collected—1997, 2002–03, and 2007–08—and a new cohort was interviewed in 2014. Hundreds of books, journal articles, and dissertations have used the PSID-CDS, and our overview of that literature points to unique methodological and measurement contributions, summarizes the motivation for research on parental investments in children, reviews findings regarding healthy child development, and examines the role of neighborhoods in children’s lives.

scholarly journals Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schneider ◽  
Orestes P. Hastings ◽  
Joe LaBriola
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
State Level ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Parental Time ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
The Relationship

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.

scholarly journals Income Inequality and Class Divides in Parental Investments

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schneider ◽  
Orestes P Hastings ◽  
Joe LaBriola
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
State Level ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Parental Time ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
The Relationship

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.

scholarly journals Shifting parental beliefs about child development to foster parental investments and improve school readiness outcomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. List ◽  
Julie Pernaudet ◽  
Dana L. Suskind
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Child Development ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Child Outcomes ◽  
Parental Beliefs ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
Socioeconomic Gaps ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
The Impact

AbstractSocioeconomic gaps in child development open up early, with associated disparities in parental investments in children. Understanding the drivers of these disparities is key to designing effective policies. We first show that parental beliefs about the impact of early parental investments differ across socioeconomic status (SES), with parents of higher SES being more likely to believe that parental investments impact child development. We then use two randomized controlled trials to explore the mutability of such beliefs and their link to parental investments and child development, our three primary outcomes. In the first trial (NCT02812017 on clinicaltrials.gov), parents in the treatment group were asked to watch a short educational video during four well-child visits with their pediatrician while in the second trial (NCT03076268), parents in the treatment group received twelve home visits with feedback based on their daily interactions with their child. In both cases, we find that parental beliefs about child development are malleable. The first program changes parental beliefs but fails to lastingly increase parental investments and child outcomes. By contrast, in the more intensive program, all pre-specified endpoints are improved: the augmented beliefs are associated with enriched parent-child interactions and higher vocabulary, math, and social-emotional skills for the children.

scholarly journals Beliefs, parental investments, and intergenerational persistence: A formal model

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-154
Author(s):  
Anders Hjorth-Trolle
Keyword(s):  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Bayesian Learning ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Socioeconomic Outcomes ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Parental Investments ◽  
New Information ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Investments In Children ◽  
Key Aspects

Empirical research documents persistent socioeconomic and race gaps in parental investments in children. This article presents a formal model that describes the process through which parents’ beliefs about the returns on investments in children evolve over time in light of new information that they receive regarding the outcomes of past investments. The model, which is based on Bayesian learning, accounts for how parents of low socioeconomic status may come to underinvest in their children because they have false low beliefs about the returns on investments. Moreover, the model describes how beliefs are transmitted across generations, thus creating dynasties of underinvesting parents who reproduce inequalities in children’s socioeconomic outcomes. Finally, this article uses National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data to provide illustrative empirical evidence on key aspects of the proposed model. The main contribution of this article is to integrate parents’ beliefs about returns on investments into existing models of intergenerational transmissions.

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