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ObjectiveThis article examines changes from 1986 to 2016 in the characteristics that parents in the United States most value in their children and differences in those values by parent income and education.BackgroundAs a result of interrelated labor market changes, income‐ and education‐based differences in parents' terminal values that have characterized U.S. families for generations are hypothesized to have converged by income and education during this period.MethodData were drawn from the General Social Surveys (https://gss.norc.org/) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (https://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/), together spanning the period 1986–2016. The percentage of parents endorsing each child trait as 'most important' were compared over time across the 90th, 50th, and 10th percentiles of the income and education distributions.ResultsThe characteristic parents most value in children across time was the ability to 'think for themselves'; however, parents have placed increasing value on children's willingness to 'work hard' and 'help others.' Parents with lower incomes and less education, compared with economically advantaged parents, became less likely to value children's obedience, whereas economically advantaged parents became less likely to value children's thinking for themselves.ConclusionConsequently, the income‐ and education‐based gaps in the value of obedience and thinking for oneself have narrowed. As such, parents at the top and bottom of the socioeconomic distribution hold more similar parental values today than ever before.

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