How Does Parental Housework Interact with Children’s Housework Time in East Asia? Evidence from Diary Data

• In Event: 40466 - Child Gender, Parenting, and Intergenerational Relationships Across the Life Course

Abstract

This study investigates the intergenerational dynamics of housework in three East Asian countries—China, Japan, and South Korea—focusing on the relationship between parents’ and children’s housework time and the gender dynamics involved. Drawing on time-diary data from 2008 to 2019, we analyze a sample of 180,238 adolescents aged 10 to 17 using OLS regressions. While previous studies emphasize gendered substitution and behavioral modeling theories, our study introduces the co-presence perspective, highlighting simultaneous parent-child housework as a way of socialization and parenting practice. Our findings reveal that both mothers’ and fathers’ housework times are positively associated with children’s housework time, rejecting the substitution hypothesis but supporting the socialization model. Notably, fathers’ housework time has a stronger influence on children’s participation, regardless of gender, while girls’ housework time is influenced by both parents than boys'. These patterns hold consistently across the three countries. Supplementary analyses that explore the mechanisms underlying fathers’ stronger influence provide further evidence that children find it easier to join when fathers do housework, particularly on weekends. By focusing on the East Asian context, this study contributes to the children’s housework literature, which has predominantly focused on Western societies. Unlike the Western emphasis on same-sex parent-child role modeling, our findings underscore the prominent role of fathers in shaping children’s housework behaviors and the stronger influence of parental involvement on daughters. Overall, the results emphasize family socialization through shared domestic activities, providing new insights into evolving gender norms and household labor dynamics in East Asia.

Authors

• Kefan Xue

• Matthew Henglong Luo, University of Oxford

• Man-Yee Kan