Parents’ Time with Children and Cultural Capital in Britain: Educational and Class Differences in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Leisure Activities with Children

Pablo Gracia, University of Amsterdam

Using data from the ‘2000 British Time Use Survey’ for partnered mothers (n = 851) and fathers (n = 893), this article investigates how education and social class are correlated with parents’ time with children in three leisure activities that have cultural and human capital implications: (1) outdoor cultural activities; (2) indoor cultural activities; (3) watching TV. Empirical results showed that mothers’ socioeconomic position has more remarkable effects on parent-child leisure activities than fathers’. Mothers’ education, not social class, had a significant impact on mothers’ cultural time with children, whereas social class, unlike education, had a strong negative impact on mothers’ participation in watching TV with children. Yet, after controlling for mothers’ overall TV time, class had insignificant effects on mothers’ TV time with children, while education turned to have strong positive effects. Finally, fathers’ education and social class were only significantly correlated with father-child indoor cultural activities.