With back to school season beginning again, although somewhat unconventional due to the coronavirus pandemic, CivicScience data takes a look at parents of school-age children (3 -17) compared to the general population (18+) after similarly tracking college-age children and parents. The CivicScience DeepProfile™ product scours hundreds of attributes to uncover what makes groups of people different from the general population. The following DeepProfile™ found that parents of school-age children are most likely to be homeowners ages 35 -44 with higher incomes, and explores social media and technology usage, eating habits and more.

Demographics 

  • Parents with school-age children ages 25-54 over index the gen pop, most significantly those ages 35-44 (40% / 16%), whereas those ages 55-64 and 65+ under index (5% / 17%; 2% / 20%).
  • Parents of school-age children are equally as likely as the gen pop to have an income of $75 – $100k (16%/ 16%). They slightly under index the gen pop in incomes below this, and slightly over index in incomes above this.
  • Parents of school-age children are slightly more likely to be homeowners than the gen pop (69% / 65%), and slightly less likely to still live with their parents (3% / 7%).

Indices 

  • Parents of school-age children over index the gen pop in writing both positive and negative product reviews (67% / 62%; 56% / 51%).
  • Parents of school-age children are slightly more likely to be influenced by social media, such as their TV, movie taste (42% / 37%). They over index on actively using Facebook (60% / 54%), likely an age proxy. Although they also slightly over index on other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest (20% / 19%; 32% / 29%; 18% / 15%).
  • These parents are also more likely to be price sensitive, both in general (36% / 32%) and with items such as food or household products (32% / 28%; 40% / 37%). They are more likely to visit stores but then buy online (75% / 68%).
  • Surprisingly, parents of school-age children over index on all tech savvy attributes. Most significantly, owning or intending to buy a smartwatch (36% / 27%) and owning or intending to buy smart home products (30% / 23%). They also over index in owning or intending to buy VR products (23% / 17%), likely due to the ages of their children.
  • Similarly, parents of school-age children generally over index the gen pop on all entertainment technology attributes. Specifically, they are more likely to use Netflix (67% / 55%) and stream music and TV / videos (52% / 43%; 80% / 71%), among others.
  • Parents of school-age children are surprisingly less likely than the gen pop to be a news fan (22% / 30%). They are also less likely to be influenced by ads on TV (37% / 43%).
  • Parents of school-age children are also less likely to take vitamins or nutritional supplements (55% / 61%), and surprisingly slightly less likely than the gen pop to not smoke (81% / 84%).
  • Parents of school-age children over index the gen pop in all food & cooking attributes, specifically in enjoying to cook (71% / 66%) and cooking dinner most often (70% / 63%). However, they also over index in dining out and are significantly more likely than the gen pop to regularly eat at quick service restaurants (63% / 52%).
  • Interestingly, parents of school-age children generally under index the gen pop in managing money, specifically with managing money ‘very well’ (16% / 21%), although they over index in using a mobile device for banking (62% / 52%).

 

Download the full report here.