Volume 44 - Article 9 | Pages 225–238  

Japanese adolescents' time use: The role of household income and parental education

By Ekaterina Hertog, Muzhi Zhou

This article is part of the Special Collection 30 "Family Changes and Inequality in East Asia"

Abstract

Background: How children spend their day is closely linked to their social and developmental outcomes. Children’s time use is associated with their parents’ educational and economic capital, making time use a potential reproduction channel for socioeconomic inequalities.

Objective: We evaluate the correlation of natal-family economic resources, parents’ education, and children’s daily time use in Japan.

Methods: Analysing data from a 2006 Japanese time use survey, we use natal-family income, parental education, and the interaction between them to predict in-school and afterschool study time, leisure time, and sleep time for children aged 10‒18.

Results: Children from families with higher incomes and more-educated parents spend a longer time studying after school and less time on sleep and leisure. Parental income and mothers’ and fathers’ education are all independently associated with children’s daily patterns.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that available resources and parental education are important in shaping children’s daily routines and, through these routines, their eventual socioeconomic outcomes.

Contribution: This is the first article to simultaneously assess the impact of income and parental education on children’s study, leisure, and sleep time. It is also the first paper to analyse children’s time use and their natal-family characteristics in Japan.

Author's Affiliation

• Ekaterina Hertog - University of Oxford, United Kingdom EMAIL
• Muzhi Zhou - University of Oxford, United Kingdom EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Singlehood in contemporary Japan: Rating, dating, and waiting for a good match
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Housework share and fertility preference in four East Asian countries in 2006 and 2012
Volume 41 - Article 35

A new family equilibrium? Changing dynamics between the gender division of labor and fertility in Great Britain, 1991–2017
Volume 40 - Article 50

Marriage in an immigrant society: Education and the transition to first marriage in Hong Kong
Volume 37 - Article 18

Domestic division of labour and fertility preference in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Volume 36 - Article 18

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