Are Intensive Parenting Attitudes Internationally Generalizable? The Case of Sweden

Abstract

Attitudes promoting “intensive parenting” are prevalent in many countries and are associated with mothering and class privilege. Are intensive parenting attitudes widespread and similarly classed in Sweden, which has historically shifted burdens off parents and reduced inequalities? Using the 2021 Generations and Gender Survey, descriptive and latent class analyses identified predominant patterns of intensive parenting attitudes and sociodemographic predictors among Swedes. Moderate population-level agreement with measures of intensive parenting attitudes obscured subgroup variability in intensive parenting profiles and a reversed relationship with class. About half of respondents, disproportionately younger, foreign-born, and female, belonged to concordant latent classes that strongly or moderately subscribed to intensive parenting attitudes. Another third belonged to a discordant class dominated by older, Swedish-born, class-advantaged respondents espousing certain aspects of intensive parenting attitudes in a distinct pattern not yet identified elsewhere. This dissonance in predominant parenting attitudes among Swedes may have interesting implications for norms and policies.