2024 Volume 49 Pages 55-72
In Japan, the factors of having multiple children have been examined mainly in the field of demography. For example, sex preference for children, the degree of male participation in childrearing and living with three generations are pointed out as factors in a thirdchild's birth. However, the effects of parents' educational expectations and educational investment on parity progression has not been adequately examined. In this paper, this point is examined using the Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the 21st Century (wave1-wave15). Our analysis reveals two points. First, high educational expectations for children had a significant negative effect on parity progression. Second, high educational investment in children had a significant negative effect on parity progression. These results suggest that socioeconomic differences in children's educational attainment and educational investment affect the number of children. These results can also be interpreted in terms of socioeconomic differences in strategies concerning social stratification maintenance.
