Educational inequalities in parental care time: Cross-national evidence from Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom

- We analyze educational inequalities in parental care time in four European countries.
- For mothers, an educational gradient in child care is found in Spain and the UK.
- For fathers, in Denmark and Spain we find such educational gradient in parenting.
- On weekends, the gradient in parenting time only applies to Spain and the UK.
- Socioeconomic resources, especially from mothers, partly influence these results.

This study uses time-diary data for dual-earner couples from Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom to analyze educational inequalities in parental care time in different national contexts. For mothers, education is significantly associated with parenting involvement only in Spain and the United Kingdom. In Spain these differences are largely explained by inequalities in mothers' time and monetary resources, but not in the United Kingdom, where less-educated mothers disproportionally work in short part-time jobs. For fathers, education is associated with parenting time in Denmark, and particularly in Spain, while the wife's resources substantially drive these associations. On weekends, the educational gradient in parental care time applies only to Spain and the United Kingdom, two countries with particularly large inequalities in parents' opportunities to engage in parenting. The study shows country variations in educational inequalities in parenting, suggesting that socioeconomic resources, especially from mothers, shape important variations in parenting involvement.