Full-time earner and stay-at-home parent is best for families, majority of American moms say
A new survey reveals that American families face profound pressures and that most married mothers believe the ideal household socioeconomic arrangement is a full-time earner and a stay-at-home parent raising young children.
The 2021 Home Building survey released last month by American Compass Research detailed how families in the U.S. are socio-economically. Among parenting-age adults 18-50, only those who are married and have the highest income and education levels are likely to report that they have achieved what is known as the "American Dream."
Only 25% of the general population say they have achieved it, whereas 55% say they are getting by but do not have the life they desire. Twenty percent say they are "struggling and worried for the future."
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For Americans who say their families are growing, nearly half report that they have fewer children than they would like. Those surveyed in lower, working, and middle-class households are at least twice as likely to cite "affordability" rather than a career or lifestyle as the reason why they've had fewer children. By contrast, upper-class parents are more likely to say that their lifestyle or career is why they do not have more children, according to the data.
Among married mothers, 53% said they "prefer to have one full-time earner and one stay-at-home parent while raising children" younger than 5. This arrangement was preferred by "lower-, working-, and middle-class respondents."
Meanwhile, upper-class adults were more likely to say they prefer having both parents working full time while the family takes advantage of paid, full-time childcare.
Political ideologies and approaches to public policy vary across all classes. Regardless of parental status, 60% to 75% of Americans say the government ought to do more to support families.
Slightly more than a quarter of respondents favored some kind of direct cash payment. Forty-three percent selected direct cash assistance or a wage subsidy, and 43% selected paid family leave or subsidized childcare.
Across all class demographics except for the upper class — which is defined in the study as having an annual household income of over $150,000 — Americans are most likely to prefer as ideal having a full-time income earner while also have a stay-at-home parent to raise young children.
Conducted by YouGov in late January, The American Compass Home Building Survey used a representative sample of 2,000 adults aged 18 to 50 living in the United States, including 1,174 respondents who reported being a parent or guardian.
Respondents were instructed to answer the questions as if the COVID-19 pandemic had not happened, as though they were living before the disease outbreak, or how they expect life to be after the pandemic has ended.
