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" Good news: Divorce rates are down and parenting practices are looking up. A recent study by two University of California (San Diego) economists that analyzed how Americans use their time reports that the amount of child care time spent by parents at all income levels has spiked since the mid-1990s. The breakdown: In 1995, the average amount of time mothers spent with their children was 12 hours a week. By 2007, that number was up to 21.2. hours a week (for college-educated women). However, the improvements, they think, are more a reflection of modern marriages than they are of child care practices. Factors to consider? 1) People are waiting longer to get married/have children; 2) Adults who may have once felt pressured into having children but who didn&amp;#039;t necessarily want children aren&amp;#039;t feeling pressured to do so anymore; 3) Married couples have less specific roles (job holder, homemaker) within their marriage, and work more as a unit\u2014which frees up time. According to NYTimes.com, this isn&amp;#039;t the first study that suggests an improvement in child-centered parenting skills, but this study is different because &amp;quot;it links so many time-use surveys and also breaks the data down by age of the child and education level.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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