Japanese Version of Concerted Cultivation Associated with Adaptation to Lower Secondary Education

Observing child-rearing strategies practiced by elementary school children's middle-class parents in the United States, Annette Lareau coined the term "concerted cultivation," describing the middle-class distinctive parenting pattern. These parents intentionally structure their children's daily lives, for example, by enrolling them in extracurricular activities to develop their cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Concerted cultivation was also observed in Japan, while previous studies have suggested some dissimilarities between the United States and Japan regarding middle-class parenting styles, possibly derived from the two nations' different features of educational systems. Therefore, I investigate whether concerted cultivation practiced by Japanese middle-class parents has distinctive characteristics using nationally representative longitudinal data on children in Japan, while considering the Japanese education system's important features different from those in the United States (i.e., standardization level and educational selection's timing). I also explore whether different levels of cumulative experiences acquired through Japanese concerted cultivation assist in differentiating children's adaptation to lower secondary education. This study's findings demonstrate how college-educated parents transmit their advantages to their children through a distinctive pattern of concerted cultivation developed in response to Japan's standardized education system with its high-stakes educational selection in secondary education.