Three Key Differences Between Parents Across the Political Divide
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The data in this analysis comes from our Modern Parenting: Today’s Practices and Priorities report, which includes dozens of additional charts and insights on what marketers need to understand about parents today.
Key Takeaways
Republican parents are 12 points more likely than Democrats to say members of their religious community are helping them raise their kids, while the latter are more likely to say their parents or partners’ parents are supporting.
Democrats are more likely to say they split household and parenting responsibilities evenly with their partners, while Republicans of both genders say they take on much more responsibility themselves.
Parents of both political persuasions are aligned in hoping for job satisfaction and security for their kids when they grow up.
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Becoming a parent is a transformative experience — one that can reshape not only daily routines but also deeply held beliefs, including political views. According to our report on modern parenting, 43% of moms and dads report that parenthood has influenced their political leanings, with a notable trend toward a shift to the right.
This shift matters — the political identities of parents shape their experiences and perspectives, revealing important differences in how Republican and Democratic parents navigate the realities of raising children today.
While all parents hope for their kids’ professional fulfillment, Republicans also hold more traditional aspirations
Ultimately, what any parent wants is for their child to grow into a happy and healthy adult. And despite all of the political differences between Democrats and Republicans, how they define this for their children is more similar than it is different. For both, their children having a job they love and that provides financial stability is the top priority. Following these top priorities, the rank order of other hopes is nearly identical across the political spectrum — parents want their kids to own homes, get college degrees and be in happy relationships.
That said, there are some differences in the degree to which parents want specific outcomes. For example, despite both parties ranking job satisfaction and security at the top of their list, Democrats are 5 points more likely than Republicans to say these things are very important. On the other side, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say it’s very important for their children to get married, and to share their religious beliefs. Religion is the biggest differentiator between parties, and Republicans rank it slightly higher than getting married and having children (though the difference is within the margin of error).
Kids’ future professional life is a top priority for all parents
Republicans also show more optimism about their kids’ future in general. Parents were asked whether they believed their children would be better or worse off than their own generation when it comes to several aspects of life, and Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say they’d be better off on most fronts. They showed outsized optimism when it comes to technology, independence and innovation. Of course, this may be related to Republicans’ overall sense of positivity about the country (77% of Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction, compared to only 30% of Democrats), so this optimism stands to shift along with the political winds.
Parents’ child-rearing support systems vary across the political spectrum
It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child, and parents on both political poles cite multiple sources of support when it comes to parenting. But the makeup of the village itself looks slightly different for Republicans than it does for Democrats.
For one thing, Republicans’ support system is made up of a wider variety of members. In other words, Republicans are more likely than Democrats on almost all fronts to say that certain people or groups of people are helping them to raise their kids. The divide is the starkest when it comes to religious community — 28% of Republicans say connections they’ve made through their faith are helping to raise their children, compared with 16% of Democrats. But Republicans are also more likely to say that their friends and parents of their kids’ friends are part of their village.
In contrast, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say their parents or their partner’s parents are helping to raise their kids (though the difference is right on the survey’s margin of error).
Republican parents have a broader support system than Democrats
The makeup of their village may differ, but parents of both political IDs look more alike than different when it comes to the sources of information they use for parenting. Both groups are most likely to say they get “a lot” of information from their immediate family, friends and extended family, and for both groups, offline connections are a more influential source of information than online ones.
Division of household labor varies by political identity
Differences in their parenting village and sources of information underscore external realities, but things also look different for Republicans and Democrats within their own homes. Partnered Democrats, for example, are more likely than Republicans to say they handle most household and parenting responsibilities equally with their partners. For example, 47% of Democratic women and 40% of Democratic men, compared with 33% and 34% of Republicans, respectively, say they handle supervising children equally with their partners.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they share responsibilities equally with their partner
In contrast, Republicans are more likely to say that they take on much more responsibility than their partners across nearly all aspects. Interestingly, this is true for both men and women, with the only exceptions being that Democrat dads say they take on a lot more meal planning and grocery shopping than their Republican counterparts. This suggests a disconnect in perceptions of responsibility in the home, if both partners feel they are taking on an outsized burden (to note, there are some same-sex partnerships reflected in the responses, but not enough to have a sizable impact on the data).
It’s a different story when parents cast their eyes on society in general. No matter what the division of labor is in their own home, Democrats and Republicans agree on nearly all fronts that women bear the brunt of responsibility more than men when it comes to domestic and parenting tasks.
Lindsey Roeschke is an analyst whose work focuses on behavior and expectations of consumers in the travel & hospitality and food & beverage categories, particularly through a generational and cultural lens. Prior to joining Morning Consult, she served as a director of consumer and culture analysis at Gartner. In addition to her research and advisory background, Lindsey has more than a decade of experience in the advertising world. She has lived and worked in seven cities across four continents.