Data for: The Post-Industrial Parenting Village: Childrearing Support in Urbanised, Ultra-Low Fertility Societies

This includes the dataset and link to the OSF Preregistration for the following submitted paper: Title: The Post-Industrial Parenting Village: Childrearing Support in Urbanised, Ultra-Low Fertility SocietiesAuthors: Julieta Baker, Arnold Patrao, Lora Adair, Abigail E. Page, and Michelle Ann Kline Structured AbstractBackground and Objectives: Childrearing is shaped by broad socioecological contexts which are constantly shifting, particularly in high-income, urbanised, Western societies with ultra-low fertility. Given that allmothering is a universal feature of childrearing, this study applies an evolutionary framework to explore parenting and parenting support in these evolutionarily novel contexts. .Methodology: Using survey data from participants in North America, UK, Poland, and other high-income, Western, low- and ultra-low fertility countries, we provide a descriptive analysis of childrearing support networks among parents of at least one child between the age of 0-6 years old. Participants (N = 506; Mage = 33.87) were recruited via Prolific as part of an online-adapted project due to COVID-19 constraints. Data analyses addressed two exploratory questions: 1) What do caregiving support networks look like? and 2) How do they vary across rural–urban contexts? Results: Most participants lived in nuclear households, with limited co-residence with extended kin. Parents provided the majority of in-home childcare, while out-of-home care was more widely distributed though still kin-dominated. Community embeddedness indicators were generally low. Rural–urban differences were minimal and reflected differences in composition rather than overall levels of support.Conclusions and Implications: Our findings depict a predominantly nuclear, kin-centred caregiving structure for an urbanised, high-income sample, with limited broader community integration. The lack of rural–urban differences challenges assumptions of denser rural kin networks and underscores the widespread impact of urbanisation on social networks, raising questions about how narrower support networks may influence parenting experiences.Lay Summary We surveyed 506 parents of young children to understand who supports them with childcare and advice. Most relied on partners and close family, with little wider community involvement. Support networks looked similar in rural and urban areas, showing that parenting in urbanised, high-income contexts, often happens within small, nuclear-family circles.