EXCERPTS
More moms are staying at home with their kids full time, and those moms tend to be younger, less educated and more likely to be poor than women who work outside the home, new research finds.
That picture of stay-at-home motherhood may be at odds with a stereotype many Americans have of wealthier, more educated mothers who choose to stay home with their children because they can afford not to work.
While that's still true of some moms, researchers also argue that many women who stay at home are doing so at least partly because they can't afford the child care costs and other expenses associated with going to work, especially if they can't get a job that pays well.
D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at Pew Research Center and one of the authors of the new report, said women who stay home with their children are likely doing so for a slew of reasons, including economic ones.
"Even women who say they're staying home by choice may tell you they're home because the workplace didn't offer them many other options," she said.
The new analysis of stay-at-home moms with children under age 18, released Tuesday by Pew Research Center, found that 29 percent of moms with kids under age 18 were stay-at-home moms in 2012, up from 23 percent in 1999.The study, which was based on a detailed analysis of government data through 2012, appears to show that economic pressures may be one factor behind that increase. Since 2000, Cohn said, there has been a rise in the share of moms who said they are at home with their kids because they can't find a job.
The researchers also found that Hispanic, Asian and immigrant mothers are more likely than their peers to stay home full time with children.
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- reprinted from CNBC