Competition for Resources: A Reexamination of Sibship Sex Composition Models of Parental Investment in Japan

Kristen Schultz Lee, Pennsylvania State University

This research challenges the predictions of resource dilution models of educational investment through an analysis of survey data from the Japanese National Family Research 1998 Survey. Exchange-based models of educational investments arguing that boys drain resources away from their sisters are shown to be inadequate. Using mixed models to examine differences in parental educational investments within families, it is shown that while boys with college-educated brothers have lower levels of educational attainment than those without brothers, the same cannot be said for girls with college-educated brothers. These findings support the results of a qualitative analysis of interviews with 104 Japanese respondents indicating that the family culture of investment, defined by parental gender beliefs and valuation of education, shapes the investments that parents make in their sons and daughters.