This thesis studies the dynamics of parents’ time with children. It uses self-reported time diary data to empirically document discrepancies between high- and low-educated parents’ time spent in various childcare activities. By doing so, the study considers one important but under-researched form of childhood inequality, namely inequality in parental time investment. The thesis is among the first to provide an extensive and detailed empirical documentation of variations in parents’ time use with children and to examine the effect of macro-structure and policy context on parenting behaviour. Using the American Time Use Survey (2003-2008), the thesis first investigates variations in parents’ time spent in different types of childcare among white parents in the US. Then, the American Heritage Time Use Survey (1965-2010) is employed to examine whether differences between high-and low-educated parents’ time spent with children have been growing or diminishing over time. Finally, the Multinational Time Use Survey (1965-2008) is used to explore the relationship between specific policies, macro-economic structure and childcare across time and across countries. The results can be summarized as follows. High-educated parents provide more primary childcare for their children compared to low-educated parents. The difference is particularly acute during the early years of childhood, and the gap is particularly wide for childcare activities which are fundamentally important for the social and cognitive development of children. This parental investment gap, most notably between high-and low-educated mothers, has been widening in the US. The main source of this widening phenomenon is the steady increase in high-educated mothers’ time spent in interactive and developmental childcare activities, rather than in routine and physical childcare activities. The analysis of cross-national data shows that the strong positive effect of education on childcare is a cross-national occurrence. However, the strength of this association varies considerably across time and across countries: universal paid leave for mothers and a gender egalitarian labour market structure help alleviate the education and gender gap in childcare. Mothers provide more primary childcare as the number of available paid leave weeks increases, while fathers increase their contribution to primary childcare as the percentage of women in the labour market increases. The provision of paid leave for mothers decreases the effect of education on primary childcare, and specific family policies as well as gender egalitarian socio-economic contexts can help alleviate inequalities in parental time investment in children.

美國於過去30至40年來，女性勞動參與率大幅增加，然而女性照顧小孩的時間卻仍呈現增長的趨勢；若以男性來看，也可發現照顧小孩的時間呈現穩定成長。為了探討此現象，我們進而搜集父母照顧小孩的相關資料，發現父母照顧小孩時間與教育程度的報酬率有關，故想研究父母照顧小孩時間與一個地區產業結構之相關性。在本文中，我們針對一個地區的勞力密集程度與父母教育小孩時間進行分析，而著重於體力的探討是因為本文假設從事體力密集的工作者較不具區域遷徙性，進而討論此特性對於父母照顧小孩的時間影響為何。 本研究的貢獻，在於以美國的州別為單位，利用不同職業所使用的勞力程度與其在各州分佈的比例，形成州與州之間產業結構的差異，並深入分析此差異對於父母照顧小孩時間的影響。由實證結果可發現，勞力密集程度與父母照顧小孩時間呈現負相關，且對於不同性別小孩的照顧時間並無顯著差異，表示父母對於不同性別小孩的重視程度相當。此外，教育程度不同的父母親，照顧小孩時間的差異性不大，表示產業結構的差異為全面性的影響，不因父母教育程度的不同而有所改變。最後，父母減少照顧小孩的時間主要來自於教育及接送時間，且對於0至11歲的小孩影響最大，表示勞力密集程度越高，使得父母對於小孩的人力資本投資自幼較不那麼重視。 / In the United States, women’s labor force participation rapidly rises over the past several decades; however, the amount of time women spent with children increases as well. On the other hand, man’s time with children has the same trend as women. For finding potential explanations of parents’ childcare time increased, we collect related literatures on this issue. It reveals that increasing time may be a response to a return on parents’ education. Here, we claim the strong correlation between the childcare time and industrial structure. We take physical factors to define industrial structure in that we assume labor-intensive workers are less mobile across regions. We discuss this assumption would impact on the parents’ childcare time. We estimate difference in industrial structure between states in America and discuss this effect on parents’ childcare time. By several empirical results, we summarize that (a) there is a negative relationship between labor-intensive levels and childcare time, (b) the sex of children and parents’ education degree would not affect empirical results, (c) decreasing childcare time of parents comes from educational time and travel time, and (d) the drop in childcare time was particularly pronounced among those children ranges from 0 to 11. This conclusion implies that parents neglect human capital development of children.