Parents more
focused on children: study
Moms and dads are spending more time focusing on their children compared to when they were children, according to a new U.S. study reported in the Washington Post1.
An analysis of thousands of “time diaries” – minute-by-minute records of how study participants spent their days – by University of Maryland researchers revealed that mothers currently spend 14.1 hours a week primarily looking after their children compared to 10.2 hours a week in 1965. That figure dropped during the 1970s and 1980s, but began rising again in the 1990s and is now at its highest level ever.
The amount of time that fathers spent focused primarily on their children nearly tripled. Yet they still lagged far behind the time commitment of mothers.
In contrast, about half of the mothers interviewed said they felt they did not spend enough time with their children. “It’s almost like it doesn’t matter how much they do, they feel they do not do enough,” sociologist and lead author Suzanne Bianchi2 told the Post.
The research reveals the vastness of the changes that took place in the lives of American women during these decades, as they entered the workforce to a degree never seen before, and as the number of single-parent families rose dramatically.
For the sake of their children, many multitasking women cut back on the time they spent on housework – down 40 per cent from 1965 – as well as their free time, and to some extent, their sleep.
Married parents seemed the most committed to their children, with mothers spending 51 hours a week with them in 2000, up from 47 hours in 1975. Among fathers, the increase was more dramatic, rising from 21 to 33 hours a week over the same period. Time spent by single mothers with their children, on the other hand, slipped from 50 hours to 44.
Researchers believe the greater time commitments reflect the increased desire of many parents that their children be high achievers.
“This is part of the burden of this generation of parents: enormously high expectations for how children develop, how they feel about themselves, how they achieve and how successful they are in the world,” said William Doherty3, a family studies professor at the University of Minnesota.
The results of the research can be found in the book Changing Rhythms of American Family Life4, published last fall.
[*1] http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070328/NEWS/703280387/1326
[*2] http://www.popcenter.umd.edu/people/bianchi_suzanne/
[*3] http://fsos.che.umn.edu/facultystaff/doherty.html
[*4] http://www.russellsage.org/publications/books/060110.113159
