Why does Parenting vary by Socioeconomic Status? New Insights from Computational Text Analysis
Leading theories suggest that parenting in the United States varies widely by socioeconomic status, with middle-class parents practicing “concerted cultivation”—marked by parents’ intensive efforts to foster their children’s development—and working-class parents engaging in the “accomplishment of natural growth”—with children given more freedom to manage their own time. First, I show how developmental spending by parents on children has changed over time and across the socioeconomic spectrum in the U.S. However, it is unclear how much these findings reflect differing cultural logics of what makes for good parenting or reflect differences in the resources required to enact the types of parenting that parents believe would be best. Second, I present a novel way to study parenting logics using computational text analysis of parenting advice given by survey respondents to hypothetical parenting situations. Using Biterm Topic Modeling we find that nearly all parenting logics reflect some form of intensive parenting, but within that are multiple nuanced versions varying across two dimensions: (1) assertive vs negotiated parenting, and (2) pedagogic vs pragmatic parenting. Third, using fractional multinomial logistic regression, I show there is little difference in how parenting logics vary by race/ethnicity, education, and income, suggesting more similarity across groups and more variability within groups than commonly understood. This work is part of a broader project to understand the socioeconomic correlates of parenting and their implications for children’s outcomes.
Date: 23 October 2024, 16:00 (Wednesday, 2nd week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Nuffield College, New Road OX1 1NF
Venue Details: Butler Room
Speaker: Pat Hastings (Colorado State University (Nuffield College Visitor))
Organising department: Nuffield College
Organisers: Nan Dirk de Graaf (Nuffield College), Christiaan Monden (Nuffield College)
Organiser contact email address: sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Nuffield College Sociology Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Maxine Collett