Educational Gradients in Parents' Child‐Care Time Across Countries, 1965–2012

• Published date: 01 August 2016
• Author: Judith Treas,Giulia M. Dotti Sani
• Date: 01 August 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12305

G M. D S Collegio Carlo Alberto

J T University of California Irvine∗

Educational Gradients in Parents’ Child-Care Time

Across Countries, 1965–2012

Parental time with children leads to positive

child outcomes. Some studies have reported a

positive educational gradient: More educated

parents devote more time to children than other

parents. Furthermore, some research nds

that parental child care increased over time.

Less certain is whether more educated parents

increased their time more than less educated

ones did, whether parenting trends for mothers

and fathers are the same, and whether observed

patterns characterize all Western countries or

only some. Hypotheses inspired by theories of

social diffusion, class differentiation, and ide-

ologies of child rearing are tested with time-use

data for 11 Western countries between 1965

and 2012. For both mothers and fathers, results

indicated a widespread educational gradient

and an increase in child-care time. In a number

of countries, the positive educational gradient

increased; nowhere was it diminished. Thus, the

advantages of intensive parenting continued to

accrue to the well-educated elite.

The time parents devote to child care is

important. Children benet from parental

Collegio Carlo Alberto, Via Real Collegio 30, 10024,

Moncalieri, Turin, Italy (giulia.dottisani@carloalberto.org).

∗Department of Sociology, SSPA3151, University of

California–Irvine, Irvine, CA 92617 (jktreas@uci.edu).

This article was edited by Jennifer Glass.

Key Words: child care, cross-national, education, parental

investment/involvement, social change,social trends.

interaction, notably in terms of academic

achievement (Bernal & Keane, 2011; Hill,

Waldfogel, Brooks-Gunn, & Han, 2005), cog-

nition (Lugo-Gil & Tamis-LeMonda, 2008;

Tucker-Drob & Harden, 2012), language acqui-

sition (Leibowitz, 1977; Rowe, 2008), and

behavior (Laird, Pettit, Bates, & Dodge, 2003;

Vandell et al., 2010). Parents in several Western

countries have been reported to be spending

increasingly more time in child care (Bianchi,

2000; Gauthier, Smeeding, & Furstenberg,

2004; Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004). Para-

doxically, the parents who spend the most time

with children seem to be more educated ones:

those whose time commanded the highest earn-

ings in the labor market (England & Srivastava,

2013; Guryan, Hurst, & Kearney, 2008; Sayer,

Gauthier, & Furstenberg, 2004). Although the

well educated may use higher incomes to free

up time for children, their behavior is con-

sistent with an intensive parenting ideology

that promotes practices that not only benet

children but also can be considered a status

marker differentiating higher from lower social

classes (Lareau, 2003). Although social class is

a multidimensional concept, this article focuses

on the educational facet, which has gured

prominently in the literature on parental child

care. Because the positive educational gradi-

ent dees the logic of economic opportunity

costs, it points up the need to consider educa-

tion not merely as human capital but also as a

pipeline for new ideas about parenting. Moving

beyond prior research to a systematic analysis of

country-to-country differences, this article asks

Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (August 2016): 1083–1096 1083

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12305