Has parenthood turned you more red or blue?

Parenthood makes moms’ politics more liberal, according to new research from North Carolina State University. What about dads? They tend to stick to their political values or they turn more conservative, especially when it comes to social welfare issues.

“Basically, women with children in the home were more liberal on social welfare attitudes, and attitudes about the Iraq War, than women without children at home,” said Dr. Steven Greene, an associate professor of political science at NC State and co-author of the study. “Men with kids are more conservative on social welfare issues than men without kids.” Men with kids did not differ from men without kids in their attitudes toward Iraq.

Greene and Dr. Laurel Elder of New York’s Hartwick College used data on the 2008 presidential election from the American National Election Studies to evaluate the voting behavior of men and women who have children at home. Parents who have grown children were not part of the study.

The study indicated that the liberalizing impact on moms is a lot stronger than the conservative effect on dads.

“That is women with children are often more liberal, but dads are, more often than not, no different than men without children,” Dr. Greene told Salon.com. “When we do see these conservative differences for dads, we hypothesize that the Republican rhetoric has largely been effective, e.g., men want to keep the government out of their way in providing for their family. For example, men actually start working more when they have kids thus lower taxes means more take-home pay to provide for the family rather than appreciating the government services that benefit children/families.”

Greene also looked at Sarah Palin’s impact on parents. Media speculated that the vice presidential candidate’s self-proclaimed “Hockey Mom” title and status as a working mother of five would attract votes and admiration of parents, especially mothers, but the research showed no evidence of a ‘Sarah Palin effect’ (between parents and non-parents), even when looking exclusively at Republicans.

Now that we have this information, the bigger question becomes why? Why do moms tend to become more liberal and why do dads hold onto their values or become slightly more conservative? And parents: Has raising children turned you more red or blue? Why?