Parenting in America: Pew Research Center

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Claire Cain Miller, Class Divisions Growing Worse, From Cradle On. New York Times, Dec 18, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/1 ... ry-differently.html

Quote:

(a) "education is strongly linked to earnings.  * * * The cycle continues: Poorer parents have less time and fewer resources to invest in their children, which can leave children less prepared for school and work, which leads to lower earnings.

(b) "There is no best parenting style or philosophy, researchers say, and across income groups, 92 percent of parents say they are doing a good job at raising their children.  Yet they are doing it quite differently.  Middle-class and higher-income parents see their children as projects in need of careful cultivation, says Annette Lareau, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist whose groundbreaking research on the topic was published in her book 'Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life.' [University of California Press, 2011]  They try to develop their skills through close supervision and organized activities [Pew study mentions scouts], and teach children to question authority figures and navigate elite institutions.  

"Working-class parents, meanwhile, believe their children will naturally thrive, and give them far greater independence and time for free play. They are taught to be compliant and deferential to adults.

"There are benefits to both approaches. Working-class children are happier, more independent, whine less and are closer with family members, Ms Lareau found. Higher-income children are more likely to declare boredom and expect their parents to solve their problems.

(c) "Especially in affluent families, children start young. Nearly half of high-earning, college-graduate parents enrolled their children in arts classes before they were 5, compared with one-fifth of low-income, less-educated parents.

(d) "The survey also probed attitudes * * * Interestingly, parents’ attitudes toward education do not seem to reflect their own educational background as much as a belief in the importance of education for upward mobility.  Most American parents say they are not concerned about their children’s grades as long as they work hard. But 50 percent of poor parents say it is extremely important to them that their children earn a college degree, compared with 39 percent of wealthier parents.

Note: Paragraph 2 of the NYT report identifies, and supplies the link to, a Pew study (next posting). However, many of the findings reported in the NYT report, such as all quotations above, are not found in the Pew study.  The FOLLOWING quotations from the NYT report does come from the Pew study.
(a) The NYT report states, "Extracurricular activities epitomize the differences in child rearing in the Pew survey, which was of a nationally representative sample of 1,807 parents. Of families earning more than $75,000 a year, 84 percent say their children have participated in organized sports over the past year, 64 percent have done volunteer work and 62 percent have taken lessons in music, dance or art. Of families earning less than $30,000, 59 percent of children have done sports, 37 percent have volunteered and 41 percent have taken arts classes."

See Pew study, graphic 7 whose heading is: "Kids of higher-income parents are more likely to be in extracurriclar activities."
(b) NYT: "Discipline techniques vary by education level: 8 percent of those with a postgraduate degree say they often spank their children, compared with 22 percent of those with a high school degree or less."

Pew study graphic 8, whose heading is "Use of spanking differs across racial and educational groups."
(c) NYT: "More than a quarter of children live in single-parent households — a historic high, according to Pew – and these children are three times as likely to live in poverty as those who live with married parents."

Pew Study graphic 2 whose heading is: "For US kids, strong link between parents' marital status and likelihood of living in poverty."

choi

Press release: Parenting in America; Outlook, worries, aspirations are strongly linked to financial situation. Pew Research Center, Dec 17, 2015.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/17/parenting-in-america/

Quote:

"Contemporary debates about parenthood often focus on parenting philosophies: Are kids better off with helicopter parents or a free-range approach? What’s more beneficial in the long run, the high expectations of a tiger mom or the nurturing environment where every child is a winner? * * *

"A new Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept 15-Oct 13, 2015, among 1,807 US parents with children younger than 18 [whose families are divided into three groups: based on family income:  $75,000+, $30K-$74,000, and <$30,000]

"Other key findings: * * * On average, parents say children should be at least 10 years old before they should be allowed to play in front of their house unsupervised while an adult is inside. Parents say children should be even older before they are allowed to stay home alone for about an hour (12 years old) or to spend time at a public park unsupervised (14 years old).

Note:
(a) Primary researchers are Kim Parker and Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Director and Associate Director, respectively, of Social Trends Research, Pew.
(b) I gave read the "complete report," which is not much different from the press release -- except that full report does say:

"Along with their movement into the labor force, women, even more than men, have been attaining higher and higher levels of education. In fact, among married couples today, it is more common for the wife to have more education than the husband, a reversal of previous patterns. These changes, along with the increasing share of single-parent families, mean that more than ever, mothers
are playing the role of breadwinner—often the primary breadwinner—within their families."

* The accompanying graphic -- whose heading is "In Four-in-ten families [plateauing from ~2010 to 2014], mom is the primary breadwinner [up from 11% in 1960]" -- shows that in 2014, "Married mothers who outearn spouse" (15%) compared with "Other mothers who are sole or primary providers (25%).  (In 1960, the corresponding figures were 4% and 7%, respectively.)