Parents’ Expectations of Children’s Overseas Education in China : Gender Gap Driven by Regional Educational Opportunities and Family Structure

チュウゴク　ニ　オケル　オヤ　ノ　コ　ニ　タイスル　カイガイ　リュウガク　キタイ　チイキ　キョウイク　キカイ　ト　カテイ　コウゾウ　ガ　モタラス　ジェンダー　ギャップ

Hou, Xianya

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

家族構造

高等教育機会

地域格差

ジェンダー

Overseas Education Expectations

Family Structure

Higher Education Opportunities

Regional Disparities

Gender Gap

Article

The number of international students has grown remarkably amid the boom of study abroad programs in China. However, is the distributed of this phenomenon consistent across society? Using data from the China Family Panel Studies for 2018, this study empirically examines the influence of opportunities to acquire higher education at the provincial level on parents’ expectations of their children’s overseas education, with a focus on family structure. The results reveal that in regions with more opportunities for higher education, parents’ expectations that their female children could enter study abroad programs significantly decrease among single-child families, whereas that for male children remain the same. This asymmetric effect leads to a paradoxical phenomenon: despite the greater availability of domestic education, the gender gap in expectations regarding overseas education widens. These findings indicate that decreased resource constraints do not necessarily mitigate gender disparity in aspirations to acquire international education. A gendered preference mechanism forms the basis of this falsehood: a substitution effect driven by high-quality local opportunities for daughters and a male-preference investment strategy rooted in cultural norms for sons. By integrating regional educational resources, family structure, and gender, this study offers a novel explanatory model for elucidation the formation of parents’ expectations about the international education of their children.