Understanding households in which very young children are contributing to the family

This study investigates the characteristics of US households in which very young children are contributing to the family in different ways. We leveraged parent surveys of 616 diverse families with at least one child below age six. In small but noteworthy proportions of families, young children were contributing to the family via household tasks (45%), caregiving (14%), providing emotional support (5%), and translating (2%). Households with relatively lower socioeconomic status were significantly more likely to have their young children involved in caregiving, providing emotional support, and translating for family - but there were no socioeconomic differences in children's help with household tasks. Controlling for household socioeconomic status, homes with a family disability were significantly more likely to have their young child below age six involved in caregiving, homes with an older sibling above age six were significantly more likely to have their young child providing emotional support, and homes with younger and older siblings were significantly more likely to their young child completing household tasks. These findings suggest that even very young children contribute to the family in meaningful ways, especially in households with more socioeconomic barriers, disability, and more children.