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80% of Canadians Want One Parent to Stay Home with Children

By Gudrun Schultz

OTTAWA, Ontario, July 18, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Almost 80 percent of Canadians think it is better for their children to have one parent stay at home, reported a new survey commissioned by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada.

In a poll conducted by GPC Research (now Fleishman-Hillard Canada) of over 2000 Canadians, 77.9 percent of respondents said they would prefer to have one parent stay at home with their children. Only 20.5 percent said they would prefer to have a competent caregiver take care of the children.

The percentage of Canadians in favour of one stay-at-home parent remained high across differences of gender, education, income, marital status, age or regional location. Regardless of differing factors, Canadians consistently rated a stay-at-home parent as the first choice in childcare.

80 percent of urban respondents said they would prefer to have one parent stay home while rural Canadians responded even higher, at 85 percent.

Regionally, the percentage of respondents preferring to have one parent stay home ranged from a high of 90.7 percent in Alberta to a “low” of 74.7 percent, or three quarters of respondents, in Quebec.

Men and women were in agreement on the question, with no significant variance in response between genders. 82 percent of men and 81 percent of women would prefer to have one parent stay home with the children.

Education level had some impact on respondents, but again, the lowest response, among participants with a University education, was still more than a three-quarters majority at 75.7 percent. Canadians with a high school education level gave the most support to a stay-home parent, at 85.4 percent.

Parents of young children (under the age of six) indicated by a majority of 78 percent that they would prefer to have one parent at home with the children.

When faced with the necessity of choosing alternate daycare for their children, respondents said care by a relative would be the best arrangement for young children. 52.7 percent would choose a relative over a family daycare (20.4 percent), non-profit daycare (16.6 percent) or for-profit daycare (6.9 percent). Residents of Quebec were the exception, choosing a family daycare (35 percent) over a relative (33 percent).

When asked what their first choice would be for federal spending on childcare (the survey was conducted before the federal election campaign of 2005), a majority of survey participants (62 percent) said their first choice in federal spending would be a child tax deduction for all parents, whether or not they are in the work force.

Just behind in popularity, at 57 percent, was a cash payment to all parents, to be spent on any form of childcare they would choose. Reducing taxes and subsidizing child care centres ranked third and fourth, and the option of building a national child care system was rated last, with just 35 percent in support.

Canadians also indicated support for new alternatives in child care that would encourage parental care, such as three-years paid leave after a child’s birth whether or not the parent had previously been working, and promoting the involvement of grandparents in the care of children.

The survey was conducted May 6-8, 2005, by telephone. 2,012 randomly selected adult respondents from across Canada completed a questionnaire. The margin of error for this survey size is ±2.2%, 19 times out of 20. Margin of error is larger for sub-groups.


See complete survey here:
http://www.imfcanada.org/publications/CanadianFamilyViews/PD...

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Child Care Advocacy Poll Biased, Says REAL Women of Canada
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062110.html

Liberal Govt's Child Care Discriminates Against 85% of Canadian Parents
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05101805.html

Vanier Institute study:
http://www.vifamily.ca/newsroom/press_feb_10_05_c.html#endno...

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