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.

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.

What follows is a summary of our key findings.

• In many ways a public consensus has developed around the changing role of women in society.  Nearly three quarters of American adults (73%) say the trend toward more women in the workforce has been a change for the better. And 62% of adults believe that a marriage in which the husband and wife both have jobs and both take care of the house and children provides a more satisfying life than one in which the husband provides for the family and the wife takes care of the home.

See “The Generation Gap and the 2012 Election,” November 3, 2011.

See “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families,” November 18, 2010.

• At the same time, when motherhood and children are brought into the debate, there is an ongoing ambivalence about what is best for society.  Only 21% of adults say the trend toward more mothers of young children working outside the home has been a good thing for society. Some 37% say this has been a bad thing, and 38% say it hasn’t made much difference.  And women themselves report feeling stressed about balancing work and family.  When asked in general how they feel about their time, 40% of working moms said they always feel rushed.  This compares with 24% of the general public and 26% of stay-at-home moms. For their part working fathers don’t seem to feel nearly as harried as working mothers.  Only 25% of working dads said they always feel rushed.

See “The Harried Life of the Working Mother,” October 1, 2009

• Most working mothers (62%) say that they would prefer to work part time, and only 37% say they prefer full-time work.  By contrast, most working fathers (79%) would prefer to work full time, while only 21% say they would prefer working part time. The reality for today’s working moms does not reflect their preferences: 74% work full time while only 26% work part time.  Only about one-in-ten moms (12%) say having a mother who works full time is the ideal situation for a child.

See “Recession Turns a Graying Office Grayer,” September 3, 2009.

• Partisanship is strongly linked to views on women, work and motherhood. While majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents say having more women in the workforce has been a change for the better, Democrats feel more positively about this trend: 82% of Democrats compared with 72% of independents and 68% of Republicans say this has been a change for the better.  When asked specifically about the trend toward more mothers of young children working outside the home, Republicans and independents react much more negatively.  Nearly half of Republicans (45%) and 42% of independents say this trend has been bad for society.  Only 28% of Democrats agree.

See “Recession Turns a Graying Office Grayer,” September 3, 2009.

See “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families,” November 18, 2010.

• While the share of mothers in the workforce has risen significantly in recent decades, roughly three-in-ten mothers of children under age 18 still do not work outside the home.  Ann Romney became the face of stay-at-home moms this week, but she doesn’t fit the demographic profile of the average at-home mom.  According to Census data, stay-at-home moms are on average less educated than their counterparts in the labor force (18% of stay-at-home moms lack a high school degree, compared with 7% of working moms).  More than one-fourth (27%) of stay-at-home moms are Hispanic, compared with 15% of working moms.  Stay-at-home moms also have markedly lower household incomes than their working mom counterparts.

See U.S. Census Bureau, “Historical Changes in Stay-at-Home Mothers: 1969-2009,” 2010.

See U.S. Census Bureau, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007,” September 2009.

Nearly two-thirds of the 10.2 million unauthorized adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years and nearly half are parents of minor children, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

These estimates are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2010 Current Population Survey, augmented with the Center’s analysis of the demographic characteristics of the unauthorized immigrant population using a “residual estimation methodology” that the Center has employed for many years.

The characteristics of this population have become a source of renewed interest in the wake of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s recent endorsement of a proposal to create a path for unauthorized immigrants to gain legal status if they have lived in the country for a long period of time; have children in the U.S.; pay taxes and belong to a church. Several of Gingrich’s opponents for the Republican presidential nomination have criticized the proposal as a form of amnesty that would encourage more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally.

Read the full report for an analysis of duration of residence among unauthorized immigrants by age, family status, attendance at religious services, and Hispanic public opinion about immigration policy.

Overview

The role of fathers in the modern American family is changing in important and countervailing ways. Fathers who live with their children have become more intensely involved in their lives, spending more time with them and taking part in a greater variety of activities. However, the share of fathers who are residing with their children has fallen significantly in the past half century.

In 1960, only 11% of children in the U.S. lived apart from their fathers. By 2010, that share had risen to 27%. The share of minor children living apart from their mothers increased only modestly, from 4% in 1960 to 8% in 2010.

According to a new Pew Research Center analysis of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), more than one-in-four fathers with children ages 18 or younger now live apart from their children — with 11% living apart from some of their children and 16% living apart from all of their children.

Fathers’ living arrangements are strongly correlated with race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status as measured by educational attainment. Black fathers are more than twice as likely as white fathers to live apart from their children (44% vs. 21%), while Hispanic fathers fall in the middle (35%). Among fathers who never completed high school, 40% live apart from their children. This compares with only 7% of fathers who graduated from college.

Almost all fathers who live with their children take an active role in their day-to-day lives through activities such as sharing meals, helping with homework and playing. Fathers who live apart from their children are much less likely to be involved in these types of activities. Many compensate by communicating with their children through email or by phone: four-in-ten nonresident dads say they are in touch with their children several times a week. At the same time, however, nearly one-third of fathers who do not live with their children say they talk or exchange email with them less than once a month. Similarly, one-in-five absent fathers say they visit their children more than once a week, but an even greater share (27%) say they have not seen their children at all in the past year.

The analysis of the NSFG was paired with a new Pew Research Center survey of attitudes toward fatherhood that finds a strong majority of the public saying children need a father in the home. Fully 69% say having a father in the home is essential to a child’s happiness. Only a slightly higher share (74%) says the same about having a mother in the home.

The Pew Research Center survey also finds that most fathers (63%) say being a dad is harder today than it was a generation ago. And the public gives today’s dads mixed grades for the job they are doing as parents. Only about one-in-four adults say fathers today are doing a better job as parents than their own fathers did. Roughly one-third (34%) say they are doing a worse job, and 40% say they are doing about the same job. Dads themselves have similar opinions: 26% say today’s fathers are doing a better job than their own fathers did. However, when asked about the job they are doing raising their own children, 47% say they’re doing a better job than their own dad did; while 3% say they’re doing a worse job.

More Time Spent, But Fewer Fathers in the Home

The changing role of fathers in the home can be measured in different ways. One approach is to look at the amount of time fathers spend caring for their children. Changing trends in time use data help illustrate the extent to which fathers who reside with their children have become more involved in their lives over time. In 1965, married fathers with children younger than age 18 living in their household spent an average of 2.6 hours per week caring for those children. Fathers’ time spent caring for their children rose gradually over the next two decades — to 2.7 hours per week in 1975 and three hours per week in 1985. From 1985 to 2000, the amount of time married fathers spent with their children more than doubled — to 6.5 hours in 2000. From 1965 to 2000, married mothers consistently logged more time than married fathers caring for their minor children, though the gap between mothers and fathers in time spent on child care narrowed significantly.

Alongside this trend toward more time spent with children is a trend toward more children living apart from their fathers. Declining marriage rates and increases in out-of-wedlock births and multi-partner fertility have given rise to complicated family structures and have increased the likelihood that fathers will not reside with all of their children. According to the NSFG, nearly half of all fathers (46%) now report that at least one of their children was born out of wedlock, and 31% report that all of their children were born out of wedlock. In addition, some 17% of men with biological children have fathered those children with more than one woman.

Living Apart from the Kids

What is life like for fathers who live apart from their children? As would be expected, there is a wide variety of experiences. Some fathers are highly involved with their children, in spite of the fact that they do not live together. Others have little or no contact with their children. Roughly one-in-five fathers who live apart from their children say they visit with them more than once a week, and an additional 29% see their children at least once a month. For 21% of these fathers, the visits take place several times a year. And for 27% there are no visits at all.

Communicating by phone or email is more prevalent than face-to-face contact. Among fathers who live apart from their minor children, 41% say they are in touch with them via phone or email several times a week; 28% say they communicate at least monthly. Still, a sizable minority (31%) say they talk on the phone or email with their children less than once a month.

Fathers, Children and Day-to-Day Activities

When it comes to spending time with a child, being in the same home makes a huge difference. More than nine-in-ten fathers who live with their children at least part of the time report that they shared a meal with their child or talked with their child about the child’s day almost daily over the past several weeks. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say they helped their child with homework or checked on their homework at least several times a week, and 54% say they took their child to or from activities several times a week or more.

By comparison, relatively few fathers who live apart from their children report taking part in these activities. Three-in-ten (31%) say they talked with their child about his or her day several times a week or more. Only 16% say they had a meal with their child several times a week over the past month. One-in-ten helped out with homework several times a week or more, and 11% took a child to or from activities.

Are You a Good Father?

A father’s presence or absence in the home is closely related to how he evaluates the job he is doing as a parent. Among fathers who live with their children at least part of the time, nearly nine-in-ten say they are doing a very good (44%) or good (44%) job as fathers to those children. An additional 11% classify themselves as okay fathers, and less than 1% say they are doing a bad or not very good job as a father.

Fathers who do not live with their children rate themselves much more negatively. Only 19% say they are doing a very good job as fathers to the children they live apart from, and 30% say they are doing a good job. One-in-four say they are doing an okay job, while nearly as many describe their parenting as not very good (13%) or bad (9%).

Other Key Findings

• Men have a strong desire to be fathers … Overall, 87% of males ages 15-44 who have no children say that they want to have children at some point. Among childless men between the ages of 40-44, a narrow majority (51%) still want children.
• … But most say you don’t need children to be happy. Men who do not have children reject the idea that people can’t be happy unless they have children. Only 8% of childless men agree with this statement, and even among fathers, only a small minority (14%) agree that children are necessary in order to be happy.
• Most say being a father is harder today than it was a generation ago … Among all adults, 57% say it is more difficult to be a father today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Only 9% say being a father is easier today, and 32% say it’s about the same. Among dads themselves, 63% say the job is harder now.
• … But there is no consensus on whether today’s fathers are more involved. The public is evenly split over whether today’s fathers play a greater role or a lesser role in their children’s lives compared with dads 20 or 30 years ago. While 46% say fathers play a greater role now, 45% say they play less of a role now.

The report is divided into three sections: (1) Overview; (2) Living Arrangements and Father Involvement; (3) Attitudes about Fatherhood. A detailed methodology and topline can be found in the appendices.

Read the full report at pewsocialtrends.org.

Throughout history, marriage and parenthood have been linked milestones on the journey to adulthood. But for the young adults of the Millennial Generation, these social institutions are becoming delinked and differently valued.

Today’s 18- to 29-year-olds value parenthood far more than marriage, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of attitudinal surveys.

A 2010 Pew Research survey found that 52% of Millennials say being a good parent is “one of the most important things” in life. Just 30% say the same about having a successful marriage — meaning there is a 22-percentage-point gap in the way Millennials value parenthood over marriage.

When this same question was posed to 18- to 29-year-olds in 1997, the gap was just seven percentage points. Back then, 42% of the members of what is known as Generation X said being a good parent was one of the most important things in life, while 35% said the same about having a successful marriage.

Pew Research surveys also find that Millennials are less likely than adults ages 30 and older to say that a child needs a home with both a father and mother to grow up happily and that single parenthood and unmarried couple parenthood are bad for society.

In many — but not all — respects, these attitudinal changes mirror behavioral changes. Young adults today are slower to marry than were their counterparts in older generations. Just 22% of Millennials are currently married. Back when Gen Xers were the same age that Millennials are now, some three-in-ten of them were married, as were more than four-in-ten Baby Boomers and more than half of the members of the Silent Generation (adults now ages 65 and older).

The delay in marriage among today’s young adults has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in the rate of out-of-wedlock births. Just over half (51%) of all births among Millennials in 2008 were to unwed mothers, compared with just under four-in-ten (39%) among Gen Xers in 1997, when they were the same age that Millennials are now.

However, the overall incidence of parenthood among young adults has declined. In 2010, 36% of women ages 18 to 29 had ever had children; in 1998, that figure was 41%.

Most Millennials Want Both

Even though their generation has been slow to marry and have children, most Millennials look forward to doing both. Among 18- to 29-year-olds who are not currently married and have no children, 70% say they want to marry and 74% say they want to have children.

Among those who have never married and have no children, 66% want to marry and 73% want to have children.

However, a significant minority of Millennials aren’t sure they want marriage (25%) or parenthood (19%). And a small minority say they do not want to marry (5%) or have children (7%).

Millennials are less likely than older generations to link marriage with parenthood. About a third of Millennials (34%) think that more unmarried couples raising children is a bad thing for society, compared with 45% of those ages 30 and older.

Likewise, about six-in-ten (63%) Millennials think that single motherhood is bad for society, compared with seven-in-ten (71%) adults ages 30 and older. More than four-in-ten (44%) Millennials say that the institution of marriage is becoming obsolete, compared with 37% of those ages 30 and older.

In addition, Millennials and Gen Xers are less likely than older generations to say that a child needs a home with both a father and a mother present to grow up happily. Only a slim majority of Millennials (53%) and Gen Xers (57%) say this, compared with three-quarters of adults who are ages 65 years or older.

Continue reading the full report at pewsocialtrends.org.