Parental age and parenting quality: Comparing the USA and Trinidad

Abstract

Over the past decade, there had been increasing interest in the topic of deferred parenting. However, the effect on children of late time parents has been a source of debate among researchers and practitioners. This cross-cultural study explores the following questions: 1) Is there an optimal age of parenting? and 2) Are children of older parents disadvantaged? An anonymous questionnaire was administered to 415 undergraduates from diverse majors and ethnic groups in Miami (United States), and to 1,072 high school students of East Indian, African, and mixed ethnic groups in Trinidad. Factor analysis yielded two major scales measuring adolescents' perception of parental enjoyment, support, energy, time, closeness, ability to confide in, ability to get along with, and overall rating. Results showed that adolescents from two substantially different cultures do not believe that they receive lower affective quality of parenting from older parents than they do from younger parents, and suggest that there may be an optimal age for fatherhood and that this age varies across cultures