Social mobility and parenting: Testing associations in a prospective longitudinal cohort study

This study tested whether parents’ social mobility is associated with parent–child interactions. Data came from 719 Dunedin Parenting Study members (mean age: 32.7; 52.3% female, 90.2% New Zealand European ethnicity) who have been followed from birth to midlife and participated in parenting assessments with their 3-year-old children (50% female). Upwardly mobile parents provided more sensitive parenting and cognitively stimulating environments than parents from stable-low socioeconomic backgrounds, but less sensitive parenting and cognitively stimulating environments than parents from stable-high socioeconomic backgrounds. These results were not fully explained by pre-existing differences between parents in experienced parenting and childhood characteristics. Our findings underscore the importance of supporting families with fewer socioeconomic resources through a life-course and intergenerational approach to caregiving environments.