IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/chinre/v14y2021i2d10.1007_s12187-020-09763-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is Children’s Academic Performance Valuable to Parents? Linking Children’s Effort Vs. Results and Fathers’ Vs. Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being

Author

Listed:
  • Yuying Tong

    (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Jenny Xin Li

    (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Binbin Shu

    (Shenzhen University)

Abstract

In today’s modern society, the economic value of children to parents has generally decreased. Instead, given the expansion of education and emphasis on educational success, the cost of raising children has increased considerably. To increase their children’s chances for upward social mobility, parents are investing much more in children’s education than before. However, although it is widely known that having school-aged children increases parental anxiety, little is known about how children’s academic performance is associated with parental psychological well-being. Using data from the 2010 and 2012 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we examine how children’s academic performance is linked to parental subjective well-being, which is measured by life satisfaction and depression symptoms. We find that both children’s learning effort and academic results are significantly associated with parental well-being when examining them separately, but the statistical significance of effort disappears when we put both in the depression model, despite that such offset effect is not obvious in the life satisfaction model. This indicates that Chinese parents tend to value the results more than the effort. The analysis by parental gender further shows that both effort and academic results are associated with mothers’ well-being, but for fathers, only results matter. Our study adds to the literature on how school-aged children’s academic performance may be associated with middle-aged parents’ well-being, extending the understanding of the value of children to parents.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuying Tong & Jenny Xin Li & Binbin Shu, 2021. "Is Children’s Academic Performance Valuable to Parents? Linking Children’s Effort Vs. Results and Fathers’ Vs. Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(2), pages 583-605, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:14:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s12187-020-09763-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s12187-020-09763-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-020-09763-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12187-020-09763-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Debra Friedman & Michael Hechter & Satoshi Kanazawa, 1994. "A theory of the value of children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(3), pages 375-401, August.
    2. Karen L. Fingerman & Yen-Pi Cheng & Kira Birditt & Steven Zarit, 2012. "Only as Happy as the Least Happy Child: Multiple Grown Children's Problems and Successes and Middle-aged Parents' Well-being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 67(2), pages 184-193.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1960. "An Economic Analysis of Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pages 209-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Suzanne Bianchi, 2000. "Maternal employment and time with children: Dramatic change or surprising continuity?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(4), pages 401-414, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nadezhda V. Baryshnikova & Florian Ploeckl & Nasantogtokh Yunren, 2023. "Does Unsatisfactory Subjective Well‐Being of School Children Decrease their Cognitive Skill Development?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(S1), pages 50-66, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sunnee Billingsley, 2010. "The Post-Communist Fertility Puzzle," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(2), pages 193-231, April.
    2. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    3. Frank Heiland & Alexia Prskawetz & Warren C. Sanderson, 2008. "Are Individuals’ Desired Family Sizes Stable? Evidence from West German Panel Data," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 24(2), pages 129-156, June.
    4. Helmut Rainer & Geethanjali Selvaretnam & David Ulph, 2011. "Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in a model of fertility choice," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 1101-1132, July.
    5. Alicia Adsera, 2011. "Where Are the Babies? Labor Market Conditions and Fertility in Europe [Où sont les bébés ? Conditions du marché du travail et fécondité en Europe]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 27(1), pages 1-32, February.
    6. Louise Grogan, 2006. "An Economic Examination of the Post-Transition Fertility Decline in Russia," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 363-397.
    7. Kristen Harknett & Francesco Billari & Carla Medalia, 2014. "Do Family Support Environments Influence Fertility? Evidence from 20 European Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 1-33, February.
    8. Maria Rita Testa & Stuart Gietel-Basten, 2014. "Certainty of meeting fertility intentions declines in Europe during the 'Great Recession'," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(23), pages 687-734.
    9. Elisabetta Santarelli, 2011. "Economic resources and the first child in Italy: A focus on income and job stability," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(9), pages 311-336.
    10. Francesca Fiori & Francesca Rinesi & Antonella Pinnelli & Sabrina Prati, 2013. "Economic Insecurity and the Fertility Intentions of Italian Women with One Child," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(3), pages 373-413, June.
    11. Bernhard Nauck, 2014. "Value of Children and the social production of welfare," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(66), pages 1793-1824.
    12. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani & Sara Taghvatalab, 2019. "Education and the allocation of time of married women in Iran," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 889-921, September.
    13. Zeynep B. Ugur, 2020. "Does Having Children Bring Life Satisfaction in Europe?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1385-1406, April.
    14. Yu-Hua Chen & Chin-Chun Yi, 2021. "An Exploration of Individual, Familial, and Cultural Factors Associated with the Value of Children among Taiwanese Young Adults," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(2), pages 487-510, April.
    15. Helmut Rainer & Geethanjali Selvaretnam & David Ulph, 2011. "Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in a model of fertility choice," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 1101-1132, July.
    16. Maria Stanfors & Frances Goldscheider, 2017. "The forest and the trees: Industrialization, demographic change, and the ongoing gender revolution in Sweden and the United States, 1870-2010," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(6), pages 173-226.
    17. Stanca, Luca, 2012. "Suffer the little children: Measuring the effects of parenthood on well-being worldwide," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 742-750.
    18. Michaela R. Kreyenfeld, 2005. "Economic uncertainty and fertility postponement: evidence from German panel data," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2005-034, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    19. Xiaorong Gu, 2021. "Introduction: the Value of Children and Social Transformations in Asia," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(2), pages 477-486, April.
    20. Koji Yasuda & Tomoko Kinugasa & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2019. "An Empirical Analysis Of Marital Status In Japan," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(03), pages 773-798, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:14:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s12187-020-09763-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.