Poster #32 - Socioeconomic Status, Childhood Experiences, and Maternal Involvement in First-Grade Children’s Education in Japan

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

Theories of social class reproduction demonstrate the intergenerational transmission of educational inequalities through parental involvement in their children’s education. Ample research demonstrates that parents of higher socioeconomic status (SES) tend to hold higher expectations of their children’s education and be more engaged in their children’s education than lower-SES parents. Such SES differences in parental involvement are often explained by different educational resources, skills, and knowledge associated with SES (Lareau, 2003; Roubino & Boyce, 2017). However, the role of parents’ agency, such as parents’ positive academic experiences, has received little attention in the study of social class reproduction and education. We examined maternal academic experiences as a mediator between SES and maternal involvement in children’s education in Japan, where parental involvement has become one of the major elements explaining SES discrepancies in academic achievement (Matsuoka, 2019; Shimizu, 2022). Using a mixed method, we examined four types of Japanese mothers’ involvement in children’s education (educational aspirations, reading to children, academic involvement, investment in extra-curricular lessons) in relation to SES. We examined how these types of maternal involvement are associated with mothers’ parents’ involvement to explore intergenerational transmission and mothers’ school/academic experiences during childhood. We tested whether those factors mediate the association between SES and maternal involvement in children’s education.

Participants were 109 mothers of first graders (age 6 or 7) who attended public school in Japan (M age = 38, SD = 4.24). All children and their mothers were interviewed. Mothers also completed a survey including questions about their aspirations for their children’s education (M = 15.19 years, SD = 1.45), frequency of reading to their children (M = 2.26, SD = 2.35), academic involvement, such as checking homework (M = 4.97, SD = 1.26), and the number of their children’s extra-curricular activities (M = 1.84, SD =1.22) in addition to demographic information. SES was significantly and positively correlated with educational aspirations (p = .019), the frequency of reading books to children (p = .015), academic involvement (p = .011), and the number of extracurricular lessons (p < .001). Mediation analyses demonstrate that SES remained significant for four types of involvement after entering mothers’ parents’ involvement. However, significant associations with four types of involvement disappeared after entering mothers’ academic/school experiences during childhood. Qualitative analyses conducted with open-ended interviews with 16 subsample mothers illuminate these findings.

Findings demonstrate that SES, especially maternal education, is powerfully associated with various types of maternal involvement in first graders’ education in Japan. Higher-SES mothers tended to receive higher involvement in their education from their parents during childhood, indicating intergenerational transmissions of educational advantages. However, maternal agency, such as mothers’ own academic/school experiences, plays a significant role in their involvement in children’s education. These findings demonstrate the importance of paying more attention to parents’ academic/school experiences and processes in understanding the mechanisms through which SES influences their educational aspirations and involvement in their children’s education.

Authors

• Yoko Yamamoto, Brown University
  Presenting Author

• Marin Furuyama, Brown University

• Arissa Tagatac Aoki, Brown University

• Julia Choi, University of California, Berkeley