Public Investments and Class Gaps in Parents’ Developmental Expenditures

Abstract

Families and governments are the primary sources of investment in children, providing access to basic resources and other developmental opportunities. Recent research identifies significant class gaps in parental investments that contribute to high levels of inequality by family income and education. State-level public investments in children and families have the potential to reduce class inequality in children’s developmental environments by affecting parents’ behavior. Using newly assembled administrative data from 1998 to 2014, linked to household-level data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, we examine how public-sector investment in income support, health, and education is associated with the private expenditures of low- and high-SES parents on developmental items for children. Are class gaps in parental investments in children narrower in contexts of higher public investment for children and families? We find that more generous public spending for children and families is associated with significantly narrower class gaps in private parental investments. Furthermore, we find that equalization is driven by bottom-up increases in low-SES households’ developmental spending in response to progressive state investments of income support and health, and by top-down decreases in high-SES households’ developmental spending in response to universal state investment in public education.

Relational Work in the Family: The Gendered Microfoundation of Parents’ Economic Decisions

“…This coincides with developments in parental spending and investment, which have increased across the social classes over the past decades (Kornrich 2016; Lunn and Kornrich 2018). Although there are still wide gaps between social classes, these narrow in states where public spending on children and families is generous (Jackson and Schneider 2022). The range of financial instruments that parents can access for child-related spending has also increased, from parental loans for children’s college education, to college savings accounts, stocks, bonds, and so on (Bandelj and Grigoryeva 2021).…”

“…These expenditures are part and parcel of the privatization of risk, which perpetuates intergenerational social inequalities (Bandelj and Grigoryeva 2021; Cooper 2014; Jackson and Schneider 2022; Kornrich and Furstenberg 2013; Lunn and Kornrich 2018; Pugh 2015). The professional middle-class project of parenting thus requires enormous resources, which parents see as “sacred” (Zelizer 1985).…”

Converging Intention and Diverging Intensity? Educational Differences in Developmental and Secondary Childcare Time in the U.S. from 2004 to 2019

“…Under time constraints, highly educated parents are better positioned to outsource housekeeping and childcare, in contrast to less educated parents who might need to provide full care themselves (England & Srivastava, 2013;Gupta & Ash, 2008). Limited public support for childrearing in the United States (Hook & Paek, 2020;Jackson & Schneider, 2022) places additional burdens on parents working non-standard hours, as they often struggle to find affordable and conveniently located childcare centers with flexible operating hours (Baxter & Hand, 2016). On the other hand, constraints due to excessive or erratic work hours and the scarcity of public childcare support lead parents with different socioeconomic statuses and resources to allocate parenting time differently.…”

State‐level safety net spending and educational gaps in maternal time with children

“…The provision of social services through the state may positively affect children both by directly augmenting resources outside of the home, and by increasing the availability of both material resources and time within the home that parents can draw from to make developmental investments in their children (Jackson and Schneider, 2022; Parolin, 2021). Whereas private parental investments exhibit stark inequality along the lines of income and parental education, many forms of public spending are considerably higher for low‐income children than for higher income children (Vericker et al, 2012).…”