Intensive parenting norms in Sweden: Prevalence and implications for childbearing, well-being and work trajectories

Research problem.

Intensive parenting norms have become pervasive in many wealthy countries and across different social strata, increasing the personal responsibility parents take for ensuring children’s well-being and success in life. These specific norms are argued to be motivated by concerns about protecting children’s future social status.

Whether these norms are prevalent in Sweden is unknown.

Sweden is distinct compared to other studied contexts because the state has long taken a substantial role in supporting parenthood and childbearing.

We explore the prevalence and nature of intensive parenting norms in Sweden and differences by social and demographic characteristics.

The implications of intensive parenting norms are also poorly understood; we assess how intensive parenting norms are related to 1) adults’ well-being, 2) childbearing plans, and 3) work trajectories following childbirth. Data and method. The project uses new Swedish Generations and Gender Survey (2021) and linked population register data.

Latent class analysis explores predominant population profiles of intensive parenting norms. We use the cohort replacement approach to approximate how parenting norms have changed over time. Multivariate regression analyses assess the implications of intensive parenting norms. Plan for project realisation.

Sunnee Billingsley and Stefanie Möllborn will lead this project and are requesting funding for 20% of their total time for the project. They will hire and collaborate with a post-doc on all the proposed research. Relevance.

We expect our results to inform both the discussion of Sweden’s declining fertility rate and research into how inequalities are generated and reproduced in Sweden.

Our results may help explain puzzling patterns related to women’s non-adjustment of parental leave-taking when men are taking more parental leave.

Women’s time out of the labor force following childbirth is associated with lasting career penalties and contributes to patterns of family inequality.

Finally, we expect results to address whether changing parenting culture may contribute to the intensifying link between gender-equal work and care arrangements in couples and increased sickness absence at work for both men and women.

Understanding the social, gender, and equality consequences of parenting norms is important to adjust public policies in a way that furthers social and gender equality.