Hidden patterns of inequality: The heterogeneity in parenting within educational groups

• There is an educational gradient in the heterogeneity of cognitively stimulating parenting. • Parenting is most diverse among mothers without high school. • Parenting is most similar among mothers with college degrees. • Family-origin inequality, skills, and economic situation explains the educational gradient. • Variance function regression was applied to data on parenting of 3–4-year-olds from NLSY-CYA. When sociology deals with differences within groups of similar socioeconomic status, research and theorizing tend to focus on the heterogeneity among the socioeconomically advantaged thus representing the socioeconomically disadvantaged as homogeneous. This study is a case of the opposite. For at set of high-stake cultural practices, parental strategies for social reproduction, I find most heterogeneity among socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers. Using data from the NLSY-CYA, I provide novel descriptive statistics of the variance in parenting by maternal education and analyze the determinants of these differences employing a variance function regression. I find an educational gradient in the heterogeneity of cognitively stimulating parenting: the variance is highest among mothers with no high school diploma and shrinks among mothers with more education. That is, mothers with the least amount of education show the most diversity in parenting. This educational gradient is associated with inequality in mothers’ family of origin, cognitive skills, and current economic situation. This result suggests that the systematic differences in heterogeneity stem from (1) selection into education based on family-of-origin characteristics and cognitive skills, where the non-deterministic sorting makes the least educated the most heterogeneous, and (2) the effect of education on mothers’ economic situation, where education decreases uncertainty and thereby makes the most educated the most homogeneous group. Moreover, the study calls for bringing attention to the potential larger heterogeneity in cultural practices among the socioeconomically disadvantaged and provides a theoretical framework for understanding this heterogeneity. This approach challenges stereotypes and deepens sociological understanding of inequality.