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Intensive Mothering and Well-being: The Role of Education and Child Care Activity

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  • Gimenez-Nadal, Jose Ignacio
  • Sevilla, Almudena

Abstract

We use data from the 2012, and 2013 Well-being Module of the American Time Use Survey to understand maternal momentary well-being, and how these vary by educational attainment. We document that even after controlling for a wide set of maternal characteristics, higher educated mothers report lower levels of happiness and meaning, and higher levels of fatigue when engaging in child-related activities than mothers with lower educational attainment. Further analysis reveals that there is no education gap in momentary wellbeing among fathers and non-mothers. These findings are consistent with more educated mothers feeling the pressures from the ideology of intensive mothering, whereby mother’s continuous time and attention is understood as being crucial for child development.

Suggested Citation

  • Gimenez-Nadal, Jose Ignacio & Sevilla, Almudena, 2016. "Intensive Mothering and Well-being: The Role of Education and Child Care Activity," MPRA Paper 74249, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:74249
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ariel Kalil & Susan E. Mayer & William Delgado & Lisa A. Gennetian, 2020. "The Education Gradient in Maternal Enjoyment of Time in Childcare," Working Papers 2020-068, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    3. Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Sevilla, Almudena, 2021. "Temporal Flexibility, Breaks at Work, and the Motherhood Wage Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 14578, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mothering. Momentary well-being. Child care. Ideology of intensive mothering. Time use;

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics

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