Time – the investment in children

The Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America took place on April 27-29 in Chicago. The conference gathered the scientists focused on demography, labour market, family policy and social policy.

During the conference, Iga Magda and Roma Keister from our Institute presented results of their latest research on the investment in children and children’s outcomes.

Iga Magda presented the study on the relationship between parental employment status, their job flexibility and the amount of time they spend with children. She showed that labour market status as such is not an important predictor of the amount of time parents devote to educational activities with children. Socio-economic background measured by educational attainment of parents, or their own parental background, is much more important. She also stressed that having more or less flexible job does not affect the amount of time working parents spend with their children on educational activities.

Roma Keister presented the study on time investments in children, and children outcomes in three-generation families. She showed that parenting intensity is lower in three-generation familiy households than in two-parent families, but children in three-generation families fare (in terms of grades at school) as well as those living in two-parent families. Thus, family type is not a very important factor children outcomes or the amount of time they are devoted.