Late maternal age and parenting practices

Recent decades have shown a gradual rise in the age at which women give birth to their children in many developed countries. This process of late fertility may have important consequences on parenting. The present study aims to analyse whether and how maternal age influences parenting practices with respect to the presence of parents in their children’s daily life. We refer to the early infancy period and consider three domains of parenting: a) support for the baby’s care (grandparents, babysitter, or nursery), b) the mothers’ return to work after childbirth, and c) the father’s time spent with his child. Results do not support our hypothesis that older parents may be more physically present in the daily life of their infants than the younger ones