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Do tiger moms raise superior kids? The impact of parenting style on adolescent human capital formation in China

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  • Zhang, Haochen
  • Qin, Xuezheng
  • Zhou, Jiantao

Abstract

How parenting style influences human capital accumulation is an important yet under-researched topic in the economics literature. Based on the two-wave longitudinal dataset of Chinese Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study explores the impact of parenting style on adolescents' human capital formation, including cognitive and non-cognitive skills in China. Following the mainstream approach in development psychology, the measurement of parenting style is constructed from two dimensions – demandingness and responsiveness, and further classified into four types: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and neglectful. We find that both demandingness and responsiveness of parents have positive effects on children's academic performance, while parents' responsiveness play a substantial role in the formation of children's cognitive skills (measured by the standardized cognitive skill tests) as well as socio-emotional skills (measured by mental health, self-confidence, motivation and extraversion). Putting together, the authoritative parenting style characterized by high demandingness and high responsiveness is associated with the best outcome measures among the four parenting types in cultivating children's human capital formation. Moreover, we find that student time-allocation, extracurricular activities and parent-teacher interactions may serve as important channels of the parenting influences, and that there exist moderate interactive effects between fathers' and mothers' influences and between the demandingness and responsiveness of parenting styles.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Haochen & Qin, Xuezheng & Zhou, Jiantao, 2020. "Do tiger moms raise superior kids? The impact of parenting style on adolescent human capital formation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:63:y:2020:i:c:s1043951x20301346
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101537
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    Cited by:

    1. Tani, Massimiliano & Xu, Lei & Zhu, Yu, 2021. "The impact of an un(der)funded inclusive education policy: Evidence from the 2013 China education panel survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 768-784.
    2. Juerong Huang & Hongjing Dang & Yan Cai & Juan Liu & Qihui Chen, 2022. "Myopia and Depression among Middle School Students in China—Is There a Mediating Role for Wearing Eyeglasses?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Zhang, Yanan, 2021. "The role of socioeconomic status and parental investment in adolescent outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    4. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2022. "Parental misbeliefs and household investment in children's education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Li, Yunsen & Yang, Haoran & Luo, Liang, 2021. "Poverty exposure and cognitive abilities of children in rural China: Causation and the roles of family investments," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Parenting style; Human capital; Cognitive skills; Socio-emotional skills;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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