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Despite the growing perception of and concern about the rising cost burden of out-of-school education on families in China, few studies to date have comprehensively examined how family investment in out-of-school education has changed over time. Capitalizing on longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) for 2010–2018, this study analyzes the trend in family investment in children's out-of-school education (measured by children's rates of participation and families' absolute and relative monetary expenditure) during that period. We also examine how this trend differs by family socioeconomic status (SES) and by children's level of schooling (preschool, primary school, junior high school). Our results show a large and growing number of families invest in out-of-school education in their children's preschool years, with a significant SES gradient. Furthermore, family investment in out-of-school education has increased significantly between 2010 and 2018, with SES disparities in investment persisting and even widening during the same period. These findings carry important implications for understanding educational inequality in contemporary China as well as for policy making to promote educational equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractUsing data from the 2012–2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we investigate how parenting practices vary by parents’ perception of inequality in contemporary China. We ask three questions: (1) Whether and how do parents’ perceptions of inequality differ by their socioeconomic background? (2) Are parenting practices related to parents’ perception of inequality? (3) Whether and how the relationship between parenting practices and perception of inequality varies across parents of different socioeconomic status (SES)? The results show that the higher the SES of parents, the more pessimistic is their perception of inequality. In addition, parents who are more aware of income inequality tend to spend more money on children’s education, have higher expectations for their children’s academic performance and educational achievement, and are more engaged in intensive parenting behaviors than parents who perceive income inequality to be less severe. Mothers’ perceptions of inequality are more strongly associated with investment in children’s education than those of fathers. In addition, the relationship between perceived inequality and parental investment in out-of-school education only varies by family SES among mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]