Parenting in the Age of Inequality: Is Intensive, Achievement-oriented Parenting a Rational Response to a Changing World?
Date and Time:
Feb 12 2020 9:00 am - 10:30 am
Location:
New Trier High School, Northfield Campus, Cornog Auditorium
Address:
7 Happ Rd., Northfield, IL 60093

Grand Rounds for clinicians, 1.5 CEU hours available. Clinicians, pre-register HERE.

Free copy of Love, Money & Parenting for registered clinicians, courtesy of Compass Health Center.

NOTE: This Grand Rounds event is open to anyone who wishes to attend, not just clinicians, though the book give-away is for clinicians only.

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Matthias Doepke, Ph.D.

HSBC Research Professor in Economics, Northwestern University

Parenting in the Age of Inequality: Is Intensive, Achievement-oriented Parenting a Rational Response to a Changing World?

Anxiety | Family | Parenting | Relationships

In the last few decades, American parenting has transformed from being relaxed and laissez-faire into a frantic, overscheduled activity. Parents experience rising anxiety about the achievements of their little ones, and in response now devote about twice as much time on supervising and interacting with their kids as what was the norm in the 1970s. In this talk, economist Matthias Doepke, Ph.D., co-author of Love, Money & Parenting: How Economics Explains How We Raise Our Kids, argues that this change, rather than being a form of collective madness, represents a broadly rational response of parents to a changed economic environment. The main culprit is rising economic inequality. As the gap between the rich and the poor and those with more and less education has risen, so have parents’ perceptions of the stakes in children’s achievement, and more intensive parenting is the result. Prof. Doepke also highlights that the same changes have resulted in more unequal parenting across society, and he discusses policy options that may help counteract these trends and help preserve the ideal of equal opportunity for all.