Formation of Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?

Hélène Le Forner (1)

1 AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques

Although it is recognized that parental time is a strong determinant of child development, little is known about heterogeneity across the effects of parental time. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children, I model the cognitive and socio-emotional skills production functions for children born in 1999-2000, from 4 to 11 years old, using, among others, a cumulative value-added and a generalized method of moments model. I find that the effect on children's verbal and socioemotional skills of time spent on educational activities with the father is smaller than that with the mother or both parents together. For socio-emotional skills, this difference seems to be driven by fathers who spend little time with their children.

Mots clés: child development; cognitive skills; socio-emotional skills; parental time investment

Domaines: Economies et finances

Hélène Le Forner. Formation of Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?. 2021. ⟨halshs-03160526⟩