Parental Factors Influencing Expenditure in Preschool Education: Evidence from 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)

Abstract

The disparities in parental investments might affect preschool children's early learning experiences and quality, and result in inequality in children's future development. Based on 282 three-to-five-year-old children and their families from the China Family Panel Studies in 2018, this paper adopted multiple linear regression to examine the relationship between parental factors and education expenditure in preschool education. Independent variables include three domains from parents, which are parental economic background, parental educational attainment, and parental educational attitudes. The findings revealed that parents' educational attainment is positively correlated with household preschool education expenditure. Second, parents who have greater economic background pay more on preschool children's education. Third, parents' educational expectations on children also have a positive effect on education expenditure. However, parents' age and emphasis on children's education have negative correlations with education expenditure on preschool children.