A comparative analysis of children’s time use and educational achievement: Assessing evidence from China, Japan and the United States

Abstract

Various forms of empirical evidence suggest that parental socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly related to educational outcomes and many countries attempt to close achievement gaps among children. Parenting practice is one important mechanism through which educational inequality emerges across families with different SES. In this paper, we show that the class gap in children’s time use and academic achievements reflects parenting styles and parental practices stratified by parental SES by comparatively investigating the cases of China, Japan, and the USA, drawing on three sets of nationally representative longitudinal data. We find that for children aged 10–15 in China, parental SES has a strong impact on children's homework time and academic performance. Similar patterns are found in the results of 10–15-year-old children in Japan; however, homework time more weakly relates to the parents' education level. Moreover, restricting the samples to 14-year-old children and comparing the three countries, we find that the test score gap among parental SES is the largest in the USA; to fill the gap in math test scores between the first and fourth income quartiles, a sizable number of additional hours spent on homework are needed in the USA, compared to China and Japan.

Physical Activity and Daily Routine among Children Aged 0–12 during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain

“…The problem is that it can become an addiction or behavioural complication [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. The use of screens [ 21 ], together with schoolwork [ 33 , 34 ], domestic occupations [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ] and reading habits [ 56 , 57 ], make up the usual tasks of children during lockdown. Families who had established routines and schedules for performing them obtained better results than those who did not.…”

“…Daily routines are an important aspect of childhood development. These include activities such as homework [ 33 , 34 ], participation in domestic chores [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], reading and learning to play a musical instrument [ 39 , 40 ]. Family- or parent-led play can be particularly influential [ 41 ].…”

Parental resources and child well-being in East Asia: An overview

“…Importantly, Nakamura and colleagues find that additional time spent studying is associated with better math and language test scores. Despite the differences in data and differences in the mechanism of interest, both Park and Lim (2020) and Nakamura et al (2020) thus conclude that family socioeconomic resources support engagement in learning activities outside school that are associated with better cognitive outcomes, thus contributing to a positive socioeconomic gradient in child well-being.…”

“…In a closely related study, Nakamura et al (2020) use nationally representative longitudinal data to systematically examine relationships between parental resources, the amount of time that children spend on educational activities, and educational/cognitive outcomes. They find that, although children whose parents have higher income or higher education levels tend to spend more time studying, the magnitude of this difference is rather small.…”

Equipamiento y uso de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en los hogares españoles durante el periodo de confinamiento. Asociación con los hábitos sociales, estilo de vida y actividad física de los niños menores de 12 años

“…Las tareas escolares, independientemente de que sean un deber o un placer para los niños, constituyen otra rutina adquirida por prácticamente la totalidad de los estudiantes con la existencia de diversos trabajos que han abordado este aspecto (Valle et al, 2019). Incluso recientes estudios internacionales confirman un mayor compromiso con los deberes y tiempos dedicados a las tareas en niños cuyos progenitores tienen un mayor nivel socioeconómico (Nakamura, Yamashita, Akabayashi, Tamura, & Zhou, 2020). España es el quinto país de la Organización para la Cooperación y Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) en el que los niños invierten una mayor cantidad de horas a las tareas escolares en casa, 6,5 a la semana frente a las 4,8 de media del resto de países (Salinas, 2014).…”