ABC News/Good Housekeeping Mother's Day Poll, January 2006

This special topic poll, conducted January 30-February 2,
2006, is part of a continuing series of monthly polls that solicit
public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and
social issues. The focus of this data collection was on respondents'
experiences as mothers. Female respondents with children under the age
of 18 were asked how well they felt they were doing as mothers, how
much each worried about not being as good a mother as she would like
to be, and the quality of her relationships with her children and with
her own mother. The poll asked how often the respondent asked her
mother for advice, whether her mother ever gave her unsolicited
parenting advice, and whether she found this advice helpful or
annoying. A series of questions asked respondents to compare their own
parenting styles with that of their mothers in areas such as
discipline and parental involvement, and respondents gave their
opinions on whether being a mother was harder or easier compared to
when they were children. Additionally, respondents were asked whether
they worked outside the home, whether they considered their work to be
a career or just a job, who had the main child care responsibilities
in their households, whether their own mothers had worked outside the
home when they were children, and the number of children in their
families when they were growing up. Demographic variables include age,
race, marital status, household income, employment status, education
level, and number and ages of children in the household.