Cohort Differences in Mothers' Perceptions of Neighborhood Quality, Child Well-being, and Parental Strain, 1976-2002.

Abstract

To examine differences in mothers' subjective experiences of child-rearing between two cohorts who lived in different eras of sociodemographic contexts and parenting norms. A resource perspective suggests that child-rearing experiences should be easier when mothers have a higher standard of living, higher education, and fewer children, as was the case for mothers in the 2000s compared with mothers in the 1970s. However, a cultural perspective indicates that the intensive mothering ideology, emerged in the 1980s, increased mothers' anxiety and stress over their children's safety and proper development. Data from two national samples of mothers with children between 6 and 12 years of age in the United States collected in 1976 and 2002 (N = 2,465) were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression models. Mothers in 2002 reported better neighborhood quality and better health of their children than mothers in 1976, even after sociodemographic advantages of mothers in 2002 relative to 1976 were taken into account. Despite these sociodemographic advantages of mothers in 2002, there was little difference in mothers' reports of their children's behavioral adjustments between the two cohorts. Furthermore, albeit among Whites only, mothers in 2002 reported more parental strain than did mothers in 1976. There was little variation in mothers' perceptions by socioeconomic status (as measured by a college degree). Our results support the idea of a stressed-moms phenomenon in the contemporary United States, particularly among Whites. Experts who advise parent education policy and programs should take into account the psychological burden of the current neoliberal emphasis on personal responsibility for raising children on individual mothers.