To provide a low-molecular material for photosensitive resists, with high rate of protecting alkali-soluble groups therein, to provide a method for producing the low-molecular material, and to provide a resist composition using the low-molecular material and enabling the composition of its own to undergo extrafine processing.

The low-molecular material is a first- to fifth-generation dendrimer. In the dendrimer, the core (A) has a central part (C) having a structure selected from aromatic rings, aromatic condensed rings, and linkage rings each with two or more rings selected from the rings joined each other either directly or via chain hydrocarbon group(s), alicyclic hydrocarbon group(s) or aromatic hydrocarbon group(s), and two or more ether oxygen atoms joined either directly or via carbon atom(s) to the ring(s) in the central part (C); and the dendrons (B) are joined each other in a branched way via ether linkages, wherein the dendron at the outermost shell has an aromatic ring or aromatic condensed ring, at least one protected outer peripheral side alkali-soluble group and one core side linkage, and all of the outer peripheral side alkali-soluble group(s) is(are) protected by acid-dissociable dissolution-inhibitory group(s).