WUNRN
USA
- Growing Number of Dads Home with the Children - Research
Biggest increase among those caring for family
June
5, 2014 - The number of fathers who do not work outside the home has risen
markedly in recent years, up to 2 million in 2012.1 High unemployment rates around the time of
the Great Recession contributed to the recent increases, but the biggest
contributor to long-term
growth in these “stay-at-home fathers” is the rising number of fathers who are
at home primarily to care for their family.
The
number of fathers who are at home with their children for any reason has nearly
doubled since 1989, when 1.1 million were in this category.2 It reached its highest point—2.2
million—in 2010, just after the official end of the recession, which spanned
from 2007 to 2009. Since that time, the number has fallen slightly, driven
mainly by declines in unemployment, according to a new
While most stay-at-home parents are mothers, fathers represent a growing share of all at-home parents – 16% in 2012, up from 10% in 1989. Roughly a quarter of these stay-at-home fathers (23%) report that they are home mainly because they cannot find a job. Nearly as many (21%) say the main reason they are home is to care for their home or family. This represents a fourfold increase from 1989, when only 5% of stay-at-home fathers said they were home primarily to care for family.
Still, the largest share of stay-at-home fathers (35%) is at home due to illness or disability. This is in sharp contrast to stay-at-home mothers, most of whom (73%) report that they are home specifically to care for their home or family4; just 11% are home due to their own illness or disability.'
A
rise in the number of stay-at-home fathers is occurring side by side with
another important parenting trend of the past half century: a rising share of
fathers who don’t live with their children at all.5 About 16 percent of fathers with
young children lived apart from all of their children. This report, however,
focuses directly on the vast
majority of fathers with children under the age of 18 who are living with at least
one of those children. Whites are significantly more
likely than blacks and Hispanics to be living with their children. Fathers
with higher levels of education are also more likely than less educated dads to
be living with their kids. Also worth noting: mothers are far more likely than
fathers to be living with their children.
As
is the case among mothers, stay-at-home fathers are less well-off financially
and have lower educational attainment than their working counterparts. At-home
fathers are twice as likely to lack a high school diploma as working fathers
(22% vs. 10%). And almost half (47%) of stay-at-home fathers are living in
poverty, compared with 8% of working fathers. This poverty figure is even
higher than among stay-at-home mothers (34% of whom are in poverty), and may be
due, in part, to the fact that stay-at-home fathers are far less likely to have
a working spouse than stay-at-home mothers (50% vs. 68%) and are more likely to
be ill or disabled than stay-at-home mothers (35% vs. 11%).
Stay-at-home
fathers also tend to be older than stay-at-home mothers, which may partially
explain why so many are home due to illness or disability. Just 24% of
stay-at-home dads are less than 35 years of age, but 42% of stay-at-home
mothers are. And stay-at-home fathers are twice as likely to be 45 years or
older (43% are, compared with 21% of stay-at-home mothers).
The
public is largely supportive of the idea of mothers staying at home with their
children, but they place less value on having a stay-at-home father. In a 2013 Pew
Research Center survey, fully 51% of respondents said children are better
off if their mother is home and doesn’t hold a job. By comparison, only 8% said
children are better off if their father is home and doesn’t work. On the other
hand, 34% of adults said children are just as well off if their mother works,
while 76% said the same about children with working fathers.
There
are many potential reasons why more fathers with young children are at home
these days. A 2012
Pew Research Center survey found that working fathers with children under
age 18 are just as likely as working mothers to say that it is difficult for
them to balance the responsibilities of their job with the responsibilities of
their family. In addition, roughly equal shares of working fathers (48%) and
mothers (52%) said they would prefer to be at home raising their children, but
they need to work because they need the income.
The
remainder of this report analyzes the likelihood of being a stay-at-home
father, as well as the reasons some fathers are at home, and the profiles of
employed fathers and stay-at-home fathers. Chapter 1 highlights trends in the
likelihood of being a stay-at-home father among those dads who live with their
children. It also illustrates how the likelihood of being a stay-at-home father
varies for different demographic groups. Chapter 2 highlights the changing
reasons that fathers give for staying at home, and Chapter 3 provides
profiles of both stay-at-home fathers and their working counterparts.
Analyses
of the trends and demographic characteristics of
The
Pew Research Center analyses include all men ages 18-69 who report living with
at least one of their own children (biological, step or adopted) younger than
18 years of age. Fathers are categorized as “working” or “stay-at-home” based
upon their employment status during the prior year. This is generally similar
to the approach adopted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
However,
while the
While
the Census
Bureau limits the definition of stay-at-home fathers to those living with
children (under the age of15) who state that they are home for the entire year
in order to care for home and family, the definition used here encompasses any
father (of a child younger than 18) who has not worked for pay in the prior
year, regardless of the reason.
Furthermore,
when discussing stay-at-home parents, the Census typically limits analysis to
families with a married husband and wife, where one spouse is in the labor
force all of the prior year. In contrast, the definitions used here are not
contingent on marital status, having a spouse or partner of the “opposite” sex,
or on the work status of the spouse or partner.
Determining
an optimal definition of stay-at-home fathers (and mothers) is difficult. For
instance, summarily excluding fathers who are primary caregivers, but who also
worked at least a few hours in the prior year may lead to an underestimate of the actual numbers of stay-at-home fathers.
On the other hand, some might argue that fathers who are home due to an
inability to work should not be included as stay-at-home fathers, even though
they may be serving as the primary caregiver. See this qualitative analysis for interesting insights on how
caregiving fathers define themselves, and how various adjustments in the Census
definition of stay-at-home fatherhood would affect their national estimates of
stay-at-home fathers.
Unless
otherwise noted, “fathers,” in this report are men ages 18-69 who are living
with their own children (biological, step or adopted) younger than 18.
“Stay-at-home
fathers” refers to those fathers not employed for pay at all in the prior year
and living at home with their children younger than 18.
“Working
fathers” refers to those who worked for pay at some point in the prior year,
and who were living with their children younger than 18. This includes fathers
who may have worked part-time, and those who worked from home. The small share
of fathers who performed unpaid work in a family business are also classified
as “working fathers”.
All
references to whites, blacks and Asians are to the non-Hispanic components of
those populations. Asians also include Pacific Islanders. Hispanics are of any
race.
“Foreign
born” refers to persons born outside of the
References
to respondents who are “high school graduates” or who have a “high school
diploma” also include those who have earned an equivalent degree, such as a GED
(General Educational Development) certificate.
Poverty
is based on the U.S. Census Bureau measure. This measure is defined by an
income threshold that is dependent on family composition and income, adjusted
for inflation. In 2012, the official poverty threshold for a family of four was
$23,283.
1. Analysis is based upon fathers who are ages 18-69 with their own
(biological, adopted or step-) children less than 18 years of age in the
household; fathers who are living apart from all of their children are not
included. “Stay-at-home fathers” were not employed at all in the year prior to
the survey, while “working fathers” are those who worked for pay in the prior
year. ↩
2. 1989 is the first year for which reliable data on stay-at-home fathers
is available. ↩
3. The U.S. Census Bureau, using a definition much more
restrictive than that used here, estimates that in 2012 there were about
214,000 stay-at-home fathers in the U.S. See “About the Data” for additional
details. ↩
4. The number of fathers at home specifically to care for home and family
is 425,000, while the number of mothers at home specifically to care for home
and family—7.6 million--is higher by a factor of about 18. ↩
5. For more information on the profiles of fathers who live with their
children, and those who live apart from their children, see Gretchen Livingston
and Kim Parker, 2011. “A Tale of Two Fathers.” Washington, D.C.: Pew Research
Center’s Social and Demographic Trends project, June. ↩