Chris Kidd

Older mothers are more likely to want religious values for their children than their younger counter-partsa study across 15,590 families in the UK has revealed. 64% of mothers aged 35-39 want their children to adopt religious values, whereas only 38% of 16-24 year olds agree to this. Ethnically, the vast majority of Pakistani and Black African mothers (98% and 96%) regard religious values as important, compared with 54% of White mums.

When asked whether they were very good mothers, on average 31% of UK women agreed. The most confident group was the Bangladeshi females at 65% with the Black Caribbeans also doing well with 42%. Interestingly these two groups disagreed with what made them very good at parenting, as the Black Caribbeans were the most likely to have a lot of rules (39%) and the Bangladeshi the least (17%).

Northern Ireland reported having the calmest atmosphere at home and also the highest proportion of married natural-parent families. Wales had the highest proportion of lone natural-parent families. Lone-parenthood was a reality for 42.5% of mothers aged between 16 and 24. In the 36 to 39 age group this figure had dropped to 8.1%. Further details of the research carried out by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies can be accessed here: precis by the Bible Society

Find the survey here.