Trends in Developmental Gradient in Mothers’ Childcare Time by Maternal Education, 2003-2019

Abstract

There has been a convergence in childcare time between more- and less-educated mothers in the United States after 2000, driven by less-educated mothers’ faster rates of increasing their childcare time. Researchers have proposed the diffusion of intensive mothering ideology to lower-SES mothers as one potential mechanism for this convergence, but this hypothesis has not been tested. This study applies a developmental framework of maternal time investment — mothers invest more time in developmentally appropriate childcare activities at children’s specific ages than other ages — to empirically investigate this question. Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2003 to 2019 (N = 34,232), this study examines whether the educational differences in developmental gradients were narrowing, which would be consistent with a cultural diffusion pattern. Results show that in 2003, mothers with bachelor’s degrees were more likely than mothers with less education to follow the developmentally appropriate time investment. By 2019, above and beyond correlated demographic and employment factors, less-educated mothers’ time investment in childcare was in line with the developmental gradient, which was similar to the pattern for mothers with bachelor’s degrees. This study adds evidence for a cultural explanation to the flattened educational gradient in mothers’ childcare time.