Nurturing Perspectives: Parenthood's Role in Shaping Policy Preferences

• In Event: Education, Socialization, and Political Preferences

Abstract

Parenthood is a disruptive life event whose impact on individuals is well documented. One of these impacts is changing an individual's time horizons and risk evaluation. Changes in both time horizons and risk evaluation have been linked to impacts on voter attitudes on climate change and gun control, two issues inherently tied to perception of risk. However, existing research documenting how parenthood affects climate change and gun control attitudes comes from exclusively outside the United States. This plausibly limits the generalizability of existing research on two fronts: First, the American experience of parenthood is fundamentally different from parenthood in other countries based on a variety of social and political factors. Second, climate change and gun control are more politicized in the United States than other countries. Beyond generalizability, understanding how voter policy preferences shift (or not) due to parenthood is vital for both activists and policymakers. For activists, shifts in policy preferences due to life transitions represent a potential intervention point on otherwise stable and polarized issues. For policymakers, understanding the impact of parenthood on policy preferences can potentially help them better represent the interests of a politically engaged block of constituents. I investigate how parenthood affects American voter attitudes on climate change and crime/gun policy using two large longitudinal datasets, consisting of over 14,000 individuals observed over the course of 7 years. I do so using a class of four difference in differences estimators that account for weighting issues with multiple period treatment and do not rely on either cross-panel covariate assumptions or the naive parallel trends assumption. I examine these issues along two dimensions: ideology (how do you feel about this issue?) and prioritization (how important is this issue to you?). I theorize that parenthood will make voters more liberal on and more likely to prioritize both climate change and gun control. I outline methods for mitigating confounding variables that often accompany parenthood, including marriage and changes in financial status, as well as placebo tests and tests for panel decay.

Author

• Eric Scheuch, Yale University