Late maternal age and parenting practices

In recent decades, the age that women give birth to their children has been gradually increasing in many developed countries. This trend may have important consequences on parenting. The present study aims to analyse whether and how maternal age influences parenting practices with respect to the presence of parents in their children’s daily life. Using data from the 2005 Italian Birth Sample Survey, we refer to the early infancy period and consider three domains of parenting: a) support for the baby’s care (grandparents, babysitter, or crèche), b) the mothers’ return to work after childbirth, and c) the father’s time spent with his child. Results show that maternal age has mixed effects depending on the employment status of the mothers. Older unemployed mothers are more prone than their younger counterparts to adopt traditional parenting models. On the contrary, employed older mothers are more likely than younger ones to have less traditional parenting models.