Pew Social & Demographic Trends » Family and Relationships

Modern Parenthood

Kim Parker and Wendy Wang — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:00:45 +0000

Overview The way mothers and fathers spend their time has changed dramatically in the past half century. Dads are doing more housework and child care; moms more paid work outside the home. Neither has overtaken the other in their “traditional” realms, but their roles are converging, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of [...]

Which parent does more in your home?

Adam Nekola — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:00:30 +0000

We asked married and cohabiting parents with children under 18 to compare their workload at home with that of their spouses. Answer two questions to find out how you compare with other parents who took our nationwide survey.

Modern Parenthood Slideshow

Andrea Caumont — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:00:07 +0000

The way mothers and fathers spend their time has changed dramatically in the past half century.

The Sandwich Generation

Kim Parker and Eileen Patten — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:00:44 +0000

Overview With an aging population and a generation of young adults struggling to achieve financial independence, the burdens and responsibilities of middle-aged Americans are increasing. Nearly half (47%) of adults in their 40s and 50s have a parent age 65 or older and are either raising a young child or financially supporting a grown child [...]

The Military-Civilian Gap: Fewer Family Connections

Pew Social Trends Staff — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:00:43 +0000

Whether or not they have served, most Americans have family members who have been in the armed forces. But as the size of the military shrinks, those ties may be diminishing.

Cohabiting Couples and Their Money

D’Vera Cohn — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:54:49 +0000

Money-sharing by cohabiting couples is the topic of this article, which focuses on the Census Bureau's new alternative measure of poverty. Cohabiting couples are much less likely to be considered poor under the alternative measure than the official measure of poverty'; the major reason is that the alternative measure assumes such couples share expenses, while the official measure assumes they are separate economic units.

Census Bureau: Flaws in Same-Sex Couple Data

D’Vera Cohn — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:13:17 +0000

The Census Bureau today released its first estimates of the number of same-sex married couples in the U.S., as well as alternatives counts to the published data for same-sex unmarried couples that try to account for data-processing issues.

A Tale of Two Fathers

Gretchen Livingston and Kim Parker — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:59:16 +0000

In the last 50 years, fathers have become much more involved in the day-to-day lives of the children they live with. During that same time period, though, the share of fathers living apart from their children has risen dramatically, to 27% in 2010.

Family Meals, Cohabitation and Divorce

D’Vera Cohn — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:32:07 +0000

More than 2,000 demographers, sociologists and others converged on Washington, D.C., last week for the Population Association of America’s annual meeting.

For Millennials, Parenthood Trumps Marriage

Wendy Wang and Paul Taylor — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:00:13 +0000

Today’s 18 to 29 year olds – members of the so-called Millennial Generation – see parenthood and marriage differently than today’s thirty-somethings (members of Generation X) did back when they were in their late teens and twenties, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey findings. Unlike their older counterparts, Millennials value parenthood much more than marriage.