52.9% of women aged 15-44, or about 32.5 million, were mothers in 2010, according to the Census Bureau. The U.S. birth rate dipped in 2011 to the lowest ever recorded, led by a plunge in births to immigrant women since the onset of the Great Recession.

Today’s mothers have more education than ever before, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.  About two-thirds of new mothers in 2011 had at least some college education, reflecting a decades-long rise in the educational levels of all women.

In 2010, the average age of first-time mothers was 25.4, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Age at first birth has been trending upward for a long time; in 1980 the average age was 22.7.

 Between paid and unpaid work, the average mother works about 2 more hours a week than she did in 1965,  though the mix of time spent on paid work, housework and child care has changed dramatically: 

Though 56% of working mothers say it’s very or somewhat difficult to balance work and family responsibilities, 78% say they’re doing an “excellent” or “very good” job as parents. 

Drew DeSilver is a senior writer at the Pew Research Center.

Are you planning to wish your mom a Happy Mother’s Day on Facebook? If so, you’re not alone. “Moms” (defined as women with a child or children under the age of 18 living at home) are especially likely to be Facebook users, even compared with dads, or with other women, according to Pew Research Center’s 2012 data on social networking. Some 79% of moms use Facebook, compared with 61% of all women and 57% of men with a minor child living at home. (As of December 2012, 54% of all American adults and 67% of internet users use social networking sites.)

Perhaps it’s not surprising so many moms are on Facebook. Women surpassed men in their social networking site usage several years ago and since then they have been consistently more likely than men to use online social networks.

Of course, more moms (and dads) on social networking sites means they must navigate relationships with their children, who may also be online.  Among all parents who have a child between the ages of 12-17, 66% now use a social networking site of some kind, up from 58% in 2011.

Previous research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has shown that teens have mixed feelings about being friends with their parents on Facebook. Even so, the vast majority of parents and teens friend each other. In 2011, 80% of parent social media users whose children were also users of social media have friended their child on the sites.

So if you do reach out to Mom on Facebook, statistically speaking, there’s a good chance she’ll be watching her newsfeed — and yours.

Joanna Brenner is the web coordinator and Aaron Smith is a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Follow them on Twitter: @JoannaBrenner and @aaron_w_smith.

Kim Parker, associate director of the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project, and Wendy Wang, research associate, were authors of the study. They discussed it on March 15, 2013 with readers.

Welcome everyone! Researchers Kim Parker and Wendy Wang are here to answer your questions about our Modern Parenthood report.

Wendy Wang: Hi everyone, Kim and I are looking forward to chatting with you about the parenthood and time use report.

Kim Parker: Hi I’m Kim Parker. I just got here and am excited to talk with you all.

Eve Tahmincioglu: One of our researchers at Families and Work Institute wondered why the survey asked how much mothers should work to benefit their children but it doesn’t ask how much fathers should work? The implicit assumption is men should work full time.

Kim Parker: Thanks for your question. We did not ask what’s best for children in terms of their father’s work status. We often ask questions that have been asked in the past so we can see how attitudes have changed, and most past surveys have concentrated on mother’s work status. It’s definitely something worth exploring in future surveys.

Jerri Lynn Hogg: How do feel technology has played a role in the change?

Wendy Wang: Great question. We mentioned technology briefly in the report, about how it may have contributed to the decline of housework time since the 60s, such as wider use of household appliances, washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers.

Kim Parker: For those interested in learning more about dads and how they are balancing work and family these days, here’s a link to a great article that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday focused on dads and based on our findings.

Stephen Lazarus: I’m an American living in Canada. I have appreciated the family supports here that are in place to promote parental investment in time at home (generous maternity/paternity leave policies, benefits etc). What is the emerging edge on this in the US –what policy proposals seem most promising with a realistic chance of enactment in law?

Kim Parker: This is an important topic, but we did not explore any policy options in our survey. Hopefully our research on public attitudes will help inform the policy discussion that may follow.

Michael Harman: As far as rating themselves on doing a good job as parents, overall has that number increased or decreased in comparison with previous survey results? I understand that may be a bit of a broad question!

Kim Parker: We haven’t been tracking this for very long, but the ratings haven’t changed substantially in recent years. In 2010, the share of parents that gave themselves high ratings was nearly identical to what we found this year. Other survey organizations may have asked similar questions with longer-term trends.

Here’s some more analysis of the report from U.S. News & World Report .

Simon Hedlin Larsson: What does longitudinal data suggest regarding a potential relationship between this “role convergence” and parents’ happiness/subjective well-being?

Wendy Wang: We do not have the longitudinal data on this topic, but our current survey data shows that similar shares of fathers and mothers say that they always feel rushed, even to do the things they have to do.

Kim Parker: Happiness is a tricky thing to measure, and it’s hard to pin down what variables are contributing to happiness and in what ways. There’s a fair bit of academic literature on this. Just last year a few studies came out saying that parents are happier than non-parents (and this is what our current research shows). Earlier research from the 1980s and early 1990s had shown that parents were less happy than non-parents. I’m not sure how the role convergence plays into this, but it’s a really interesting question.

Simon Hedlin Larsson: Wendy, thank you for the answer! Would it be possible, based on the current survey data, to hypothesize that role convergence (both parents working full-time and dividing the domestic tasks less unequally) may lead to an increased feeling of stress? That both parents feel that they are spread too thin?

Wendy Wang: That sounds like a great research question, I am interested in that as well. The problem is that the data on this is very limited. The recent American Time Use Survey has a well-being module. I might be able to link how much time they spend in different activities with some well-being indicators. But longitudinal data on this is tough to get.

Gail O’Connor: I was interested to read that only 16 percent of all adults say having a mother who works full-time with a young child is ideal, when more women than ever said they are seeking full-time work: 32 percent now compared with 20 percent in 2007. How might you explain the disparity between the public’s view of mothers’ full-time work, and what women themselves want? Also, since the recession was given as a probable reason more women want to work full-time today than they did in 2007, just wondering: were women asked the reason? Did they cite other reasons for wanting full-time work?

Kim Parker: That is an interesting finding, and there continues to be a disconnect between what mothers want (and need) and what society thinks is best for young children. I think the disparity in views is the source of a lot of the conflict that moms feel about working. I think this is one of the reasons why moms find part-time work so appealing. Unfortunately, the reality is that most working moms work full time. With regard to the recession, we didn’t ask women why a certain situation (working full time, working part time or not working at all) was ideal for them. However, we did see a correlation in the data between financial stress and the desire the work full time. The women who were in the most vulnerable financial situation (i.e. told us they didn’t have enough money to make ends meet) were among the most likely to say their ideal situation would be to work full time. Women who said they “live comfortably” were much less likely to say they prefer full-time work.

Cha E. TY: Have you detected any regional differences in your research for this study?

Wendy Wang:  That is a great point, we didn’t look at parents’ time use or opinions by region, but it will be a nice follow up in the future.

Don’t miss our parenting quiz. You can compare your results to the mothers and fathers we surveyed.

Neelie M Neirbo: Not surprising, the dad perspective. Most men are now present at childbirth. Compared to the aging stumps on Capitol Hill and senior business leaders, today’s emerging dads must have vastly different expectations for workplace support.

Kim Parker: You’re right that this generation of dads with young children has had a more hands-on experience with their kids, and our analysis of the time use data going back to 1965 shows that. The roles of moms and dads both at work and at home have converged quite a bit. Our survey didn’t explore the types of benefits or supports moms or dads have in the workplace. You might be interested in some of the work the Families and Work Institute has done.

Wendy Wang: I did my dissertation on fathers’ time with children 5 years ago, I can see more people are interested in this topic than before…dads are very important in children’s lives, we need more research on it.

Here’s some of our recent research on dads and a report about women’s growing role as breadwinners.

Kim Parker: Thanks so much for all your great questions and thanks for your interest in our work. We will continue to do research on the topics of gender and work-life balance. Stay tuned for more reports!

Wendy Wang:  These are great questions, thank you again for joining us.

With a Mormon candidate among the front-runners for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, a musical about Mormons playing on Broadway and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (LDS) running television ads about ordinary Mormons, America is in the midst of what some media accounts have dubbed a “Mormon moment.” 

A major new survey explores how Mormons themselves feel about the media spotlight, the election campaign and their place in America. The survey finds a mixed picture: Many Mormons feel they are misunderstood, discriminated against and not accepted by other Americans as part of mainstream society. Yet, at the same time, a majority of Mormons think that acceptance of Mormonism is rising. Overwhelmingly, they are satisfied with their lives and content with their communities. And most say they think the country is ready to elect a Mormon president.

These are among the findings of a comprehensive survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life of more than 1,000 Mormons across the country – the first of its kind ever published by a non-LDS research organization. Previous studies, including the Pew Forum’s 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, have found that Mormons make up slightly less than 2% of the U.S. public.

See an infographic summarizing the results and read the full report for findings on these subjects:

• Reactions to the “Mormon Moment”
• Religious beliefs and practices
• Mormons and family life
• Politics, society and morality

While most Americans today have family members who once served or are currently serving in the armed forces, a new Pew Research Center study finds there is a large gap on this measure between older and younger adults.

More than three-quarters (77%) of adults ages 50 and older said they had an immediate family member — a spouse, parent, sibling or child — who had served in the military. For many of these adults, their military family members are likely to have served prior to the phasing out of the military draft in 1973. Younger adults are much less likely to have family members who served in the military. Some 57% of those ages 30-49 say they have an immediate family member who served. And among those ages 18-29, the share is only one-third.

This gap may be attributable in part to a life-cycle effect – younger adults are less likely to have a spouse or a grown child, so they have fewer opportunities to have a family member who has served in the military. They may accumulate more military family members as they age. But even when controlling for these factors, the age gap persists. Adults under age 50 who are married and those who have grown children are less likely than their older counterparts to report that these immediate family members served in the military.

This study is based on two nationally representative surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center from July 28 through Sept. 15 — one of the nation’s military veterans and another of the general public.

Read the full report, which includes findings about how the views of Americans with family connections to the military differ from those who lack connections, as well as which segments of the population are most likely to have an immediate family member in the military.