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The “parenting divide” between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children is large and appears to be growing over time along these dimensions.
Consider the parenting time divide between economically advantaged and disadvantaged households. National time diaries show that mothers with a college education or greater spend roughly 4.5 more hours each week directly interacting with their children than do mothers with a high school diploma or less (Guryan, Hurst, and Kearney 2008). This relationship is especially noteworthy because higher-educated parents also spend more time working outside the home.
To bridge the parenting divide and improve the life chances of economically disadvantaged young children, I propose that the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the Department of Health and Human Services be tasked with building the knowledge base to create an Early Years Family Policy to promote more- effective parenting and child development in low-income families, especially for children from birth to age five.
This policy memo (PDF) outlines action steps that the ACF can take to develop an evidence and innovation agenda to support parents in helping their children reach their full potential. In particular, I argue for three major evidence-based innovations: (a) increasing participation in existing programs so that they can achieve their intended goals, (b) modifying or adapting existing programs to test new approaches that might be more cost- effective and/or cost less, and (c) developing new interventions that are lower cost and better matched to families’ needs.
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