The long-term effects of parental marriage age on children's educational human capital

Abstract

This paper focuses on micro-level Chinese households and studies the impact of parental marriage age on the education outcomes of their children, utilizing data from the China Family Panel Studies (2020). Through OLS model regression, it is found that parents who get married later are better prepared to have children, marital stability is also stronger, and their children have a longer education period. But this positive effect will turn negative after the age of marriage exceeds 30. Further analysis reveals that parental age at marriage has a heterogeneous effect on their children's educational attainment, which means mothers have a more significant impact on their children's education outcomes than fathers.

Fig 1. The impact of parental marriage age on children’s human capital.

(A) Direct effects of parental marriage age on children’s human capital investment, illustrating an inverted U-shaped relationship where early marriage limits educational quality and investment capacity, while late marriage reduces partner compatibility. Key influencing factors include educational attainment, career development, and non-cognitive abilities. (B) Indirect effects mediated by marital stability: reduced stability lowers family income and increases psychological stress, which negatively affects human capital outcomes. (C) The effects of parental marriage age on children’s education vary through four channels: early engagement, caregiving time, household decision-making power, and interactive influence. Legend. The inverted U-shaped relationship indicates that a variable first increases and then decreases as another variable increases. “Investment capacity” refers to financial or time resources allocated to education, while “marital stability” reflects the longevity of the union and levels of conflict. Arrows indicate interactions between key variables.