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A Review of the Literature on the Social and Economic Determinants of Parental Time
Abstract
Parental time has been identified as a key determinant in the healthy development of a child. The literature on this topic
has rapidly increased in recent years and has revealed large variations in the amount of time that parents devote to their
children, including variations over time and across social and economic subgroups of the population. This paper synthesizes
research devoted to parental time to provide a more succinct understanding of its significance and its variations. Beginning
with the measurement issues associated with parental time research and the theoretical foundations, the paper goes on to document
the social and economic determinants of parental time. It concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the
findings and suggestions for future research.
... Women still generally do a much larger share of household work than men (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010;Monna & Gauthier, 2008;Sullivan & Gershuny, 2018). Most explanations for why there are gender divisions in domestic work relate directly or indirectly to the labor market. ...
... These theories failed to explain why the higher education and increased labor market participation of women over recent decades were not matched by equivalent growth in men's domestic work within households (Aassve et al., 2014;England, 2003;Folbre, 2004;Nelson, 2006;Sayer, 2016). Over time, the body of research on divisions of labor has confirmed that rather than workforce participation or other characteristics, the most consistent and powerful predictor of housework time is gender (see overviews by Bianchi & Milkie, 2010;Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Research exploring how this comes about showed that gender ideology and socialization are relevant (Connell, 2006;England, 2010), and the "doing gender" approach further argued that gender is constructed, recreated, and reinforced through everyday interaction (West & Zimmerman, 1987, 2009). ...
... Parents directing more effort into household work could also generate long-term benefits for children by modeling greater selfsufficiency and domestic enterprise, and thus instilling habits and attitudes that mitigate the likelihood their children will themselves be unemployed as young adults. In line with the research above, it may be that such positive role modeling would be more effective if done by men, because they usually enjoy more domestic power (Connell, 2009;McMahon, 1999), and their domestic involvement is rarer than women's (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Witnessing their non-employed fathers do household work may influence children more profoundly than domestic labor performed by women, precisely because it is less normative. ...
Using data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we examine whether living in jobless families where parents devote more time to household work shields children against their own joblessness in the future. We draw on a representative sample of young adults who were aged between 4 and 17 years in 2001 and lived with both parents through to 2007 ( N = 1,852). A series of mixed-effect regression models suggest that dual-parent joblessness is associated with an increase in families’ overall household production. The extra household work of fathers has a moderating role on young people’s later joblessness in young adulthood; young adults raised in households in which fathers increase their household work time during jobless periods are less likely to themselves become jobless as adults. This effect is not found if mothers increase their household work time.
... Factors that influence parental time There are several important factors that influence parental time, Monna and Gauthier (2008) extensively explored the social and economic determinants of these in their review article. Although the model of intensive parenting is an important cultural ideal for virtually all parents, it does not affect everyone in the same way (Faircloth 2014). ...
... First of all, the age of children is one of the most dominant factors that influences the amount of time parents devote to children. There is persistent evidence that parental time decreases as children age (Kendig -Bianchi 2008, Monna -Gauthier 2008, Craig et al. 2014). On the one hand, in the first years childcare is highly timedemanding as parental time is mostly characterized by personal care tasks such as feeding, dressing, etc. ...
... On the one hand, in the first years childcare is highly timedemanding as parental time is mostly characterized by personal care tasks such as feeding, dressing, etc. On the other hand, in line with the concept of intensive parenting, the importance of early years might also explain the increasing amount of time parents spend with children in this period (Monna -Gauthier 2008, Craig et al. 2017. Waldfogel (2016) argues that, based on the well-explored impact of early childhood experiences on children's outcomes, the significance of parental time, especially maternal, is the strongest norm related to these years (Waldfogel 2016). ...
While there is an upward trend in the time parents and children spend together, there is also intensifying parental anxiety about whether they are spending enough and sufficient quality time with children. The significant impact of parental time on children’s cognitive and social outcomes and wellbeing is well documented in the literature. This importance is also reflected in the often-used notion of quality time in academic and public debate, which emphasizes the nature of parental time. Moreover, there is growing evidence that a ‘squeezed’ feeling of time characterizes the lives of contemporary families. The difficulties of reconciling work and family life mostly concern parents. This paper reviews the literature about parental time based on the problem of time pressure, and related to this, the paradoxical anxiety of today’s parents about the time they devote to their children. The article aims to describe parenting trends and focuses on parental time by exploring its features and influential factors. First, we review the characteristics of changing expectations about parenthood and discuss emerging concepts concerning the time parents and children spend together related to the ideals of contemporary parenting. Second, based on earlier empirical findings, the most important factors are outlined and elaborated. Reflecting on the Hungarian context, related findings are also presented.
... These studies also indicate that fathers spend more time in household labour and parenting as mothers increase their labour market work hours (Sullivan, 2010). Time use studies have thus provided critical insights into understanding the trends in father's parenting (Bianchi, Cohen, Raley, & Nomaguchi, 2004;Maume, 2011;Monna & Gauthier, 2008;Yeung, Duncan, & Hill, 2000). Among employed Canadian parents from 1980s to 1990s, for instance, fathers have made modest progress by increasing their proportion of parenting from 60 per cent to about 70 per cent (Zuzanek, 2001). ...
... Utilizing the underpinnings of economics, Becker (1981) addressed the division of labour in the family. His work influenced both the New Home Economics perspective and the relative resource explanations of household inequality (Maume, 2011;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Essentially, Becker (1981) argues that the partner with the most earnings potential in the workplace will have more bargaining power in the home over who does what and when. ...
... We align with gender theories in suggesting that these divisions occur even earlier than the biological act of childbirth. Gender theories suggest that divisions are based on gender roles determining who should fulfil working and family roles with committed time (Maume, 2011;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). ...
Using 2015 Canadian time diary data, we analyse how the gender gap in market work hours is linked to gender inequality in parenting time and household labour hours (N = 2,296). Among Canadians who are 15–34 years of age, we examine three family groupings, single without children, married without children and married with children. For the married with children group, we focus on respondents with at least one child aged 0–4 years. We find that the gender gap in market work is not significant for those single and married without children. For the married without children group, a gender gap exists for household labour. This suggests that a gender gap in household labour exists prior to the onset of children. As expected, a large gender gap in market work presents itself for married/common law respondents with young children. Half of the gender gap in market work is explained by household labour hours and parenting time. Our study demonstrates that time allocations contribute substantively to gender inequality in market work. Yet, the large unexplained part of the gap suggests that this issue is larger and more complex than mere bargaining decisions about domestic and market time.
JEL: I24, J13, J16, C10
... There is evidence from time use research suggesting that fathers spend more time in household labour and childcare as mothers increase their labour market time (Sullivan 2010). Time use studies have become a key tool by which this trend in fathering has been investigated (Bianchi et al. 2004;Yeung et al. 2000;Maume 2011;Monna and Gauthier 2008). For instance, Zuzanek (2001) found that among employed parents, Canadian fathers have increased their proportion of parenting in the family from 60% in the mid-eighties to about 70% in the late nineties. ...
... New home economics Becker (1981), in his seminal work A Treatise on the Family, applied the neoclassical economic theory to the division of labour in the family. Becker's work informed the new home economics and the relative resource perspectives (Maume 2011;Monna and Gauthier 2008). In effect, a partner's bargaining power in time allocation in the household is a function of the income earned in the market. ...
... These trends intensify once children enter the family unit. Gender theories argue that how much time is spent in parenting and by which parent depends on notions of who should focus time on work and family activity (Maume 2011;Monna and Gauthier 2008). Within the broader scope of gender theories, three approaches, namely the doing gender, status characteristics, and the gender as social structure perspectives are of great interest for the purpose of our paper. ...
We use the 2015 Canadian time diary data to examine the gender income gap in relation to time spent doing domestic (household and childcare) and market work. Specifically, we highlight the impact of relationship and parenting status by comparatively examining three groups: single without children, married without children, and married with children (N = 10,573). After controlling for household labour and market work hours, we find that the gender income gap is negligible for those who are single without children. The gender income gap for married couples without children is much larger. The largest gender income gap exists for married couples with children. When we examine married couples with children, accounting for hours spent on market and domestic work reduces the gap substantially. There is a mediating relationship of market work to the domestic work–income relationship. Domestic work is the largest contributor in the models predicting market work hours. We contribute to the understanding of gender-based income inequality by going beyond the conventional study of market work. Implications for reducing structural gender inequality in income by addressing both family and work spheres are discussed.
... Changes in attitudes have also translated to behavioral change, with contemporary men spending more time with their children than men in the past (Bianchi, 2011;Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Lamb, & Boller, 1999;Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004), especially on weekends (Gauthier, Smeeding, & Furstenberg, 2004). Nevertheless, a wide body of contemporary literature documents how the gender gap in parenting time remains, particularly on weekdays, when paid labor typically occurs and time is more constrained for both men and women (see Monna & Gauthier, 2008, for a review). ...
... Exploring such contexts is a key part of assessing father involvement today. First, much of the work on the gender gap in parents' time with children has generally focused on parenting time in the domains of physical or developmental care (Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Yet a nontrivial proportion of total parenting time is spent in what we describe as affective care activities, such as shared meals, joint television watching, and outings (Price, 2008). ...
... When studies have incorporated affective care activities, they used measures of total time in primary care activities (i.e., any time focused on the child). Yet because more time is devoted to physical care than time in other activities (Monna & Gauthier, 2008), at least when children are young, it is unclear whether gender gaps in such studies reflect time in physical care or other activities (Folbre & Yoon, 2007). Considering men's time in affective activities is an important part of recognizing the different ways that men may spend time with children (Townsend, 2010), even if such activities are not as demanding as physical care or as enriching for children as developmental care. ...
Although gender gaps in parenting time endure for parents of young children, and in physical and developmental care, men’s changing attitudes toward egalitarian gender roles suggest that gender disparities in parenting time may have closed in some contexts: particularly, in other shared activities with children, when children are school aged or older, and among higher educated parents. We investigate these possibilities using weekday time diary data from a nationally representative survey of parents participating in the American Time Use Survey (2003-2014; N = 28,698). In contrast to our expectations, we find that the gender gap in parents’ time with children persists when children are older, and even grow for some activities; extend to several other forms of shared parent–child time; and is often largest for higher educated parents. At the same time, there are notable contexts in which the gaps disappear, although they encompass the most pleasant activities, and least intensive stages of parenting.
... Changes in attitudes have also translated to behavioral change, with contemporary men spending more time with their children than men in the past (Bianchi, 2011;Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Lamb, & Boller, 1999;Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004), especially on weekends (Gauthier, Smeeding, & Furstenberg, 2004). Nevertheless, a wide body of contemporary literature documents how the gender gap in parenting time remains, particularly on weekdays, when paid labor typically occurs and time is more constrained for both men and women (see Monna & Gauthier, 2008, for a review). ...
... Exploring such contexts is a key part of assessing father involvement today. First, much of the work on the gender gap in parents' time with children has generally focused on parenting time in the domains of physical or developmental care (Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Yet a nontrivial proportion of total parenting time is spent in what we describe as affective care activities, such as shared meals, joint television watching, and outings (Price, 2008). ...
... When studies have incorporated affective care activities, they used measures of total time in primary care activities (i.e., any time focused on the child). Yet because more time is devoted to physical care than time in other activities (Monna & Gauthier, 2008), at least when children are young, it is unclear whether gender gaps in such studies reflect time in physical care or other activities (Folbre & Yoon, 2007). Considering men's time in affective activities is an important part of recognizing the different ways that men may spend time with children (Townsend, 2010), even if such activities are not as demanding as physical care or as enriching for children as developmental care. ...
A rich tradition of stratification research has established a robust link between mothers’ education and the skills in children that forecast children’s own mobility. Yet, this research has failed to consider that many U.S. women are now completing their education after having children. Such a trend raises questions about whether increases in mothers’ educational attainment can improve their children’s skill development and whether these gains are enough to reduce inequalities in skills compared with children whose mothers completed the same degree before they were born. To answer these questions, we draw on a nationally representative sample of mothers and children participating in the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLSY79 and CNLY), random- and fixed-effects techniques, and repeated measures of children’s cognitive and noncognitive skills. Contrary to existing research and theory, our results reveal that educational attainment obtained after children’s births is not associated with an improvement in children’s skills. Such findings offer substantial refinement to a long-standing model of intergenerational mobility by suggesting that the intergenerational returns to mother’s education are weaker when education is acquired after children are born. Results also highlight the limits of two-generation policy approaches to reducing inequality in future generations.
... La razón de distinguir los efectos de las características educativas del padre y de la madre es que existen patrones diferenciales entre hombres y mujeres respecto al tiempo y tipo de cuidado parental. Como avalan diversos estudios empíricos al respecto (véase, por ejemplo, Monna and Gauthier 2008;Baizán, Domínguez y González 2014), las madres suelen pasar más tiempo con sus hijos y el tipo de actividades que suelen realizar con ellos difieren en comparación a la de los padres. Si esto es así, es de esperar, lógicamente, que los efectos del nivel educativo de los padres sobre el tiempo y tipo de uso de las TIC por parte de sus hijos varíen en función del género del progenitor. ...
... Agradecemos los comentarios de los asistentes del grupo 6 de Desigualdad y Estratificación Social del XII Congreso Español de Sociología (Gijón, 2016). Notas [1] La evidencia basada en información procedente de los padres adolece de un potencial sesgo de deseabilidad social, que induce a los encuestados a ofrecer respuestas que sobreestiman el tiempo que realmente están con sus hijos, así como la calidad de las actividades que realicen con ellos (Monna y Gauthier 2008). La principal debilidad de nuestro análisis es que los datos sobre patrones de uso de las TIC por parte de los hijos ofrecen información indirecta acerca del tipo de cuidado parental que reciben. ...
Ese trabajo examina el efecto del origen familiar sobre el tiempo y el tipo de uso de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) por parte de los estudiantes españoles. A través de un análisis de la frecuencia y el tipo de uso de las TIC con datos obtenidos directamente de los estudiantes, nuestro estudio ofrece evidencia novedosa del impacto de la educación de los padres sobre el tiempo y el tipo de uso de las TIC para una muestra de estudiantes españoles. Ponemos de manifiesto que un mayor nivel educativo de los padres reduce el tiempo de uso de las TIC por parte del estudiante y, a la vez, aumenta su propensión a utilizarlas con fines educativos. Otro hallazgo empírico de la investigación es que el grado de homogamia educativa en la pareja ejerce un efecto adicional en la variable dependiente.
... Studies that used educational activities such as play, reading books, telling stories independently, and studies that incorporated all the above-discussed measures into a general 'childcare' variable have been consistent in showing the positive effects of mother-child interaction on child development (e.g. Brocklebank, Bedford, & Griffiths, 2014;Menaghan & Parcel, 1991;Monna & Gauthier, 2008;Raikes et al., 2006;Sayer, Bianchi, & Robinson, 2004). ...
... One area for future research could be an analysis of the number of mother-child interactions in each of these countries with consideration of such important factors as ethnicity and family background. Prior research has suggested that the amount of parental time dedicated to children is also shaped by existing ethnic differences (Brocklebank et al., 2014) and family characteristics (Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Third, the study does not allow us to assess the quality of mother-child interaction, while previous studies have demonstrated that the quality of parent-child interaction is associated with positive outcomes in such domains of child development as social, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing (Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 1989;Vondra, Shaw, Swearingen, Cohen, & Owens, 2001). ...
Previous research has demonstrated a positive and long-running effect of mother-child interaction on numerous areas of child development. Yet, most of what is currently known derives from research on children in Western countries. Employing data from recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) on women (ages 15–49), this study examined factors shaping mother-child interaction across the post-Soviet countries of Belarus (N = 3,413), Georgia (N = 2,004), Kazakhstan (N = 5,084), Kyrgyzstan (N = 4,272), Moldova (N = 1,744), Tajikistan (N = 4,204), Turkmenistan (N = 2,064), and Uzbekistan (N = 4,939). The average number of mother-child interactions was highest in Georgia and lowest in Kyrgyzstan. Mother-child interaction was significantly lower for younger children, older mothers, and poorer households. Initiation of mass-communication campaigns and parent-child programmes could reduce differences in the number of interactions and improve the quality of maternal time dedicated to children.
... The child's characteristics defined by gender, age (in years), and the presence of other children in the household are taken into account. Some research has, indeed, indicated that fathers are more involved when their child is a boy rather than when the child is a girl (Lundberg et al. 2007), with younger children more than with older ones (see the review by Monna and Gauthier 2008), and with an only child, since when there are more children in the household, fathers may have less time available for any single child (Sullivan et al. 2014). ...
... This means that, if the mother is employed, the father's participation in childcare increases and, in opposition, the father's employment decreases his childcare. The mother's and father's ages usually correlate, but in the models we controlled for the father's age at the interview (for the role of paternal age, see Meggiolaro and Ongaro 2013 and the review by Monna and Gauthier 2008). In general, these variables are also a proxy for unobserved characteristics connected with individual orientations, cultural values and life perspectives, and thus they allow us to control, at least indirectly, for the selection of the different types of couples. ...
Abstract This study analyses paternal involvement in the daily basic childcare of Italian cohabiting and married fathers with children aged 0–3. The aims are (a) to verify whether cohabiting fathers are more or less involved in childcare than married ones are and (b) to examine the mechanisms behind the possible differences. The focus is on both the daily basic childcare as a whole and on the specific activities of daily basic care (such as putting the child to sleep, dressing the child and changing its nappies). In addition, also potential differences among married fathers are examined, distinguishing between those who marry directly and those with pre-marital cohabitation. Results show that a higher involvement in the daily basic childcare of cohabiting fathers and of married fathers with pre-marital cohabitation may be completely explained by the fact that these typologies of couples are selected by structural differences which are positively associated with the higher fathers’ basic childcare.
... Fathers find it harder to balance work and time with children than mothers, and a change in fathers' hours worked changes their time spent on any activity with children more than a change in mothers' hours worked (Hallberg et al. 2003). Regarding race and ethnicity, once social and economic variables are controlled for, differences in parents' time with children across racial and ethnic groups evaporate (Monna et al. 2008), except for Hispanic parents who spend more time with their children than non-Hispanics (Hofferth 2003). Literature also documents positive relationships between parental time with children and income (Guryan et al. 2008), peers' parents spillover effects on children (Bifulco et al. 2011, Haraldsvik et al. 2014, Fruehwirth et al. 2019, and a positive association between quality of the neighborhood and parental involvement in children's education (Patacchini et al. 2011). ...
... Second, parental time allocated to educating children is self-reported and is therefore, subject to biases. In addition, Monna et al. (2008) point out that parental time in the literature typically includes the time parents spend interacting with their children, e.g., playing and reading, but fails to include supervision time, time parents spend planning activities for their children, and being available to the child if he or she needs it. It is unclear what each respondent in the survey counts as time spent on educating children. ...
Purpose
This research explores the impact of parental educational attainment, race, ethnicity, gender and employment on the time parents spend educating their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
School closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have affected billions of students worldwide, and have had an impact on the economy and the society. With classes being cancelled or taught remotely, the importance of parental intervention in children's education has accelerated.
Findings
The authors find that more educated parents allocate more time on child education, while higher income and employment have an adverse effect. Fathers are likely to spend more time than mothers in teaching and educating their children during COVID-19.
Practical implications
The findings have implications in identifying children whose education suffers the most in times of a pandemic and determining the main target group of policies designed to train children, encourage parental involvement and support children's educational development.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that examines the variations in parental time with children across social and economic subgroups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors also focus on the time parents spend educating their children rather than just supervising them. The authors additionally examine the determinants of the time children study on their own. Finally, the analysis is novel because it is based on the newest available data collected to examine the trends and experiences of individuals in the United States triggered by COVID-19.
... Second, we test whether differences in father involvement across residence arrangements vary by father's education. Educational attainment is consistently found to be a key factor in explaining the level and type of parental engagement (Monna & Gauthier, 2008;Sullivan, 2010). Prior research has shown that high-educated partnered fathers tend to be more involved with their children than the lower educated, because the former are more likely to adopt modern fatherhood norms and often have the resources (i.e., time and money) that make involvement easier (Köppen et al., 2018;Sayer et al., 2004). ...
... Highly educated fathers are generally well aware of the positive impact of father involvement on children's development and well-being. Well-educated fathers are also more likely to embrace modern fatherhood norms and to have more financial resources to invest in their children (Kalmijn, 2015;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Hence, high-educated fathers are typically more involved in childrearing than low-educated fathers-yet the extent may depend on the residential context. ...
Separated fathers are generally assumed to be less involved with their children than partnered fathers. Yet, extant research on separated fathers has mainly focused on nonresident fathers without taking into consideration the existing diversity in post-separation residence arrangements. In fact, separated resident and shared residence fathers may possibly be more involved than partnered fathers, because the former likely bear primary childcare responsibilities, while the latter often act as secondary caregivers. This study extends previous research by investigating father involvement via regular care and leisure activities across a full range of separated fathers, and how it compares to that of partnered fathers, as well as whether patterns differ by father's education. Data from the New Families in the Netherlands survey (N = 1592) reveal that as compared to partnered fathers, shared residence fathers and especially resident fathers are more actively involved in the regular care of their child, whereas nonresident fathers are less involved. Results are similar for leisure, except that partnered fathers are similarly involved as shared residence fathers in this activity. Education also matters: involvement of fathers across different post-separation residence arrangements is more similar to that of partnered fathers when being highly educated. These findings suggest that including resident and shared residence fathers in the picture offers a more optimistic view of fathers' post-separation parenting role, because these separated fathers are actually more actively involved in childrearing than partnered fathers.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-021-09593-1.
... Parental care time, especially in children's early years, is often viewed as essential for children's current and future well-being and skills development (e.g. Gracia and Ghysels, 2017;Monna and Gauthier, 2008). New childrearing norms have increased the time all parents spend on childcare, but studies find that highly educated mothers and fathers consistently spend more time on childcare and pursue childrearing strategies aimed at developing children's social, cognitive, and linguistic skills (e.g. ...
... A recurring question in the literature on parental time concerns the processes generating socioeconomic differences, especially the relative role of structure versus culture (e.g. Monna and Gauthier, 2008). Socioeconomic status may influence parents' ideas about parenthood and their ability to meet expectations of increasing time use on childrearing (Lee et al., 2014). ...
Time intensive parenting has spread in Western countries. This study contributes to the literature on parental time use, aiming to deepen our understanding of the relationship between parental childcare time and social class. Based on time-diary data (2010–2011) from Norway, and a concept of social class that links parents’ amount and composition of economic and cultural capital, we examine the time spent by parents on childcare activities. The analysis shows that class and gender intersect: intensive motherhood, as measured by time spent on active childcare, including developmental childcare activities thought to stimulate children's skills, is practised by all mothers. A small group of mothers in the economic upper-middle class fraction spend even more time on childcare than the other mothers. The time fathers spend on active childcare is less than mothers’, and intra-class divisions are notable. Not only lower-middle class fathers, but also cultural/balanced upper-middle class fathers spend the most time on intensive fathering. Economic upper-middle and working-class fathers spend the least time on childcare. This new insight into class patterns in parents’ childcare time challenges the widespread notion of different cultural childcare logics in the middle class, compared to the working class.
... It is only in the more recent decades that there has been a significant shift in focus to study fathers' changing gender roles as they have become increasingly more involved with their children (Goldscheider & Waite, 1993;Marsiglio, 1991). Time use studies have been an important aspect of this investigation into contemporary fatherhood (Bianchi, Cohen, Raley, & Nomaguchi, 2004;Maume, 2011;Monna & Gauthier, 2008;Yeung, Duncan, & Hill, 2000). These studies suggest that mothers have been increasingly participating in the labour force, while fathers are doing more housework (Hofferth, Reid, & Mott, 2001;Sullivan, 2010). ...
... This has historically been applied to threats related to the mother's role. The threat hypothesis is linked to gender role identity (Monna & Gauthier, 2008;Maume, 2011) which asserts that childcare time is determined, not by egalitarianism, but by gender norms which determine who should spend most time. According to status-characteristics theory, mothers are culturally socialized to succumb to a family devotion schema while males adopt a provider schema of family devotion (Ridgeway, 2011). ...
Using the 2010 General Social Survey in Time Use (Canadian time diary data, N = 1785), we explore the impact of spouses’ time spent on childcare and other work–family factors on parents’ work–family balance satisfaction. We examine how benefits compare to threats to parenting time and the relative impact on satisfaction with work–family balance. Our findings indicate that benefits to parenting time (working regular shift, fewer hours, and flextime) increase work–family balance. Threats to parenting (hiring of childcare, spouse’s household labour), which should benefit work–family balance, decrease satisfaction. We find mothers’ satisfaction with work–family balance is unaffected by increased childcare time spent by fathers. In contrast, mothers’ increased childcare time is associated with lower satisfaction with work–family balance for fathers. We argue Canadian fathers may be feeling increased cultural pressure to participate more fully in parenting. Fathers potentially perceive mothers’ predominant parenting as a threat to new expectations while mothers perceive fathers’ new expectations as a benefit. Alternatively, fathers may feel neglected as a result of mothers’ focus on parenting.
... Given adult COAs are at risk for a range of adverse adjustment outcomes, it is important to understand the unique and additive roles that problem drinking by mothers and fathers may play in influencing adverse outcomes for their children. Within the family, mothers are more likely than fathers to provide care and emotional support for children and adolescents (Monna and Gauthier 2008), a trend that continues into young adulthood (Arnett and Schwab 2013;Markiewicz et al. 2006). As such, based on social models of development, maternal problem drinking may have a greater negative impact on child adjustment. ...
This study examined the relationship between parental problem drinking (maternal and paternal) and emerging adult problem behaviors (alcohol use, drug use, and antisocial behavior). In addition, the moderating role of parental support (maternal and paternal) was explored. Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of emerging adults (N = 600; Mage = 20.00, SD = 1.42; 50% women; 62% White). Results from regression analyses of survey data indicated that both maternal problem drinking and maternal support moderated the relationship between paternal problem drinking and emerging adult alcohol use. For drug use, there was a three-way interaction between paternal problem drinking, maternal problem drinking, and maternal support. The relationship between paternal problem drinking and drug use only was significant for those who reported high maternal problem drinking and low maternal support. For antisocial behavior, there were positive relationships between paternal problem drinking and antisocial behavior and between maternal problem drinking and antisocial behavior in contexts of varying levels of parental support. Findings highlight the potential for parental support to both buffer and enhance the adverse influence of parental problem drinking across varied contexts.
... Nonetheless, women continue to bear primary responsibility for housework, and the care of children and the elderly; they remain far more likely than men to stay at home when children are young; and even if employed, they spend more time than men on unpaid work in the household (see e.g. Monna and Gauthier 2008;Craig and Mullan 2011;Hatch and Posel 2018). ...
Over the past 50 years, a sizeable literature has developed that investigates the subjective well-being implications for women of being full-time homemakers. However, this research is limited in focus, to women in developed countries who are typically married or in cohabiting unions and where the alternative to specializing in household production is employment. In this study, we contribute to the literature by exploring the relationship between full-time homemaking and subjective well-being in South Africa, a developing country where family formation often does not involve a conjugal unit, and where unemployment or economic inactivity are as likely alternatives to full-time homemaking as employment. Our analysis of national longitudinal data shows that specializing in household production is clearly less satisfying for women than being employed, and particularly among unmarried women.
However, being without any activity is the least satisfying of all. Further analysis reveals that the benefits of employment derive specifically from regular employment (as opposed to casual employment), and that controlling for socio-economic status eliminates the relative dissatisfaction of homemakers at the cross-section, but not that of unemployed or inactive women.
... However, the extent of paternal care shows substantial variability between subjects, raising the question why some fathers choose to highly invest in their children while others do not. Paternal care is determined by multiple factors, including individual characteristics of the father, mother and children (e.g., age, education, psychological distress, personality traits, role identity and attitudes), the co-parental relationship (e.g., marital status and satisfaction), or contextual factors such as the family constellation, sociocultural environment, or socioeconomic status (Monna and Gauthier 2008;Corwyn and Bradley 1999;Coley and Hernandez 2006). Biologically, paternal care in human males, as in various bi-parental species, is accompanied by characteristic hormonal changes, including a decrease in testosterone (T) levels during and after the transition to fatherhood (Storey et al. 2000;Gettler et al. 2015Gettler et al. , 2011a. ...
Paternal care is facilitated by a decline in testosterone levels following the transition to fatherhood. This process is considered to mediate a trade-off between mating and parenting, which may allow fathers to focus future resources on childcare activities. Previous studies revealed associations between testosterone levels and direct paternal care, but its relation to fathers’ subjective appraisal of the paternal role is still unknown. This cross-sectional study investigates associations between salivary testosterone concentrations and satisfaction with the father role measured by perceived constraint and enrichment due to fatherhood during child development until adolescence. A sample of 182 healthy fathers of various ages (M = 38.93, range: 25–62) with at least one child under the age of 18 was considered for this analysis. All subjects had biological children with their current partner/spouse only and lived in the same household with their partner/spouse and offspring. The presented data demonstrate that testosterone levels are positively associated with perceived constraint due to fatherhood, but only in fathers with young children. These findings suggest that high testosterone levels could temporarily be contradictory to paternal role satisfaction, due to potential role conflicts, while low testosterone may buffer some of the constraining aspects of caring for young children. Alternatively, these findings could indicate that less convinced fathers might maintain higher T levels across the whole period of fatherhood as a consequence of lower psychological role commitment.
... This has historically been applied to threats related to the mother's role. The threat hypothesis is linked to gender role identity (Maume, 2011;Monna & Gauthier, 2008) which asserts that childcare time is determined not by egalitarianism but by gender norms which determine who should spend most time. According to the status characteristics theory, mothers are culturally socialised to succumb to a family devotion schema while males adopt a provider schema of family devotion (Ridgeway, 2011). ...
Using the 2010 General Social Survey in Time Use (Canadian Time Diary data set, N = 1782), we explore the relationship between the education level of couples and the time they spend on childcare. We find that fathers and mothers with higher levels of educational attainment spend more time parenting children. However, the education childcare gradient is stronger for mothers than fathers. Consequently, the gender gap in childcare is much greater for couples with more educational attainment. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition results of these gender gaps by education level suggest very little can be attributed to how mothers and fathers at different levels of education differ on demographic and workplace characteristics. We argue that the differences in parenting time accompanying socio-economic status are more likely attributed to differences in parenting values.
JEL Classifications: I24, J13, J16, C10
... The amount of time parents spend with their children and the content of such time have been shown to differ markedly by social strata (Bonke & Esping-Andersen, 2011;Cha & Song, 2017;Craig & Mullan, 2011;Guryan et al., 2008;Kalil et al., 2012). First, highly educated parents spend more time with their children than less highly educated parents (for a review, see Monna & Gauthier, 2008). For instance, Australian fathers with university degrees spend about 10 more minutes per day with their children than Australian fathers without university degrees (Craig, Powell, & Smyth, 2014). ...
Objective
This study provides the first systematic account of how father–child time (in total and across activity types) relates to children's cognitive development as well as examining whether paternal education moderates these associations.
Background
Fathers in Western countries allocate progressively more time to child care. However, most research on how parental time inputs affect child development focuses on maternal time. It remains unclear how paternal involvement in the child's upbringing influences child outcomes.
Method
The study uses three waves of unique, longitudinal, time‐diary data from an Australian national sample of children aged 4 to 8 years (Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children; N = 3,273 children, 6,960 observations). Children's cognitive development is measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The data are modeled using a range of estimation strategies for panel data.
Results
The total amount of father–child time is associated with, at best, small improvements in children's cognitive functioning. In contrast, the amount of father–child time in educational activities is associated with moderate to large improvements. Such associations are similar for highly and less‐highly educated fathers.
Conclusion
Our findings are relevant for policy and practice, being indicative that enabling paternal involvement in their children's upbringing should bring moderate to high gains to their children in terms of cognitive functioning, particularly if paternal involvement is directed at educational activities.
... A "new father" ideal (Hook & Wolfe, 2012;Pleck & Pleck, 1997) has seen fathers more engaged in children's lives. Changes in ideas about what constitutes the proper care of children has led to wide consensus that the amount and quality of the time parents devote to their children influences their healthy development and chances of success in life (Bianchi & Milkie, 2010;Lamb, 2004;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Although much of this discourse has focused on motherhood, the expectation of heightened time investment has increasingly been extended to fathers (Daly, 2001;Hays, 1998;Wall & Arnold, 2007). ...
Objective: To investigate relationships between parenting stress and the labor force status and transitions of fathers and mothers, including cross‐spousal effects.
Background: Parenting is a demanding role, which can be stressful depending on access to resources and support. Relationships between employment and parenting stress vary by class and gender, but little is known about the effect of transitions—short‐term changes—in labor force status.
Method: Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey (n = 4,387 mothers and 4,033 fathers with children younger than age 17) and fixed effects modeling of data over 15 waves, the study examined relationships between parenting stress and mothers and fathers labor force status and transitions between full‐time work, part‐time work, and being out of the labor force.
Results: Mothers report higher parenting stress when they are employed part‐time. For both mothers and fathers, having a nonemployed partner is associated with lower parenting stress, but a partner's transition to this status is associated with higher parenting stress.
Conclusion: Both mothers and fathers find parenting stressful, and this can be compounded by their employment situation, especially for mothers. Cross‐spousal linkages are also important, notably that having a partner not in the labor force is associated with lower parenting stress for employed parents of both genders and is likely because care can be delegated to the home‐based parent.
... Major factors restricting parents' availability for care emerge from mothers' and fathers' paid-work choices. A substantial body of research highlights the impact of mother's employment on father's involvement with children (Monna and Gauthier 2008). Broadly speaking, the more engaged mothers are in paid work, the more equally they share childcare (Craig and Mullan 2011). ...
BACKGROUND Many studies of Western societies have documented an increasing involvement of fathers with their children since the 1970s. The trend reflects changes in the meaning of fatherhood and contributes to child well-being and gender equality. New policies in the United Kingdom might have further encouraged father involvement in the new millennium. Differences in father involvement between socioeconomic groups have caused concern since they contribute to inequality in resources available to children. OBJECTIVES This paper examines the recent trends and social differences in father involvement with children in the United Kingdom. METHODS Data from the UK Time Use Surveys 2000-2001 and 2014-2015 are analysed using regression models. RESULTS Fathers' overall involvement in childcare in the new millennium has been stable but differences emerge when looking at specific childcare activities, in particular on weekend days. In 2014 fathers were less likely to provide interactive care and active fathers provided on average fewer minutes of physical care than in 2000. Fathers from higher SES groups offset some of these trends by increased participation rates in physical care in 2014 compared to 2000. CONCLUSIONS The stability of fathers' involvement signifies a stalling of the transformation of the father role and progress towards gender equality in the home in large parts of the population. Father involvement on weekend days continues to diverge between high and low status groups. CONTRIBUTION This is the first comprehensive analysis of trends in father involvement in the new millennium using time-use data. It is the first analysis that finds no further increase of father involvement in the United Kingdom.
... Contemporary fatherhood literature also draws attention to the emergence of the engaged father and the consensus is that today's fathers are more involved in their children's lives than previous generations (Arendell, 1997;Glass, 1998;Sayer et al, 2004;Smith, 2004;Mannino and Deutsch, 2007). Yet there is ample evidence from timeuse research that, despite the growth in maternal employment, women still shoulder the bulk of responsibility for children (Nomaguchi et al, 2005;Craig, 2006;Doucet, 2006;Mannino and Deutsch, 2007;Monna and Gauthier, 2008). ...
It is widely argued that parenting has intensified in recent decades and that family life has become increasingly child-centred. Intensive parenting represents a cultural shift in parenting behaviour that requires enactment at the individual level. Moreover, adherence to intensive parenting standards is often presented as a conscious/willing adoption, whereby parents choose to parent in a particular way. This article explores why parents conform to intensive parenting ideals. Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with 29 parents in Sydney, Australia, during which they reflected on the differences between their children's childhood and their own. The article argues that while parents conform to intensive parenting standards, they do so at least partly because social context curtails their ability to do otherwise. Failure to uphold intensive parenting ideals was associated with several perceived risks for both parents and children.
... Kuralların uygulanmasında çocuğa etkin rol ve sorumluluk verilmektedir. Kurallara uydukça, sorumluluklar yerine getirildikçe çocuk takdir edilerek davranışlar pekiştirilmekte ve böylece çocukta özdenetim mekanizmasının geliştirilmesi sağlanmaktadır (Monna & Gauthier, 2008Buna göre araştırmaya katılanların büyük çoğunluğu, 28-37 (%53,5) ve 38-47 (%33,8) yaş aralığında oluşmaktadır. Araştırma örneğini, 387 kişiyle evliler oluştururken evli olmayanların temsili %3,3'dür. ...
Much the same in most of the concepts, definition and scope of the term consump-tion changed radically after globalisation. After obtaining a new content, consumption is no longer just a medium to make individuals delighted, but became the phenomen onto securethatall by itself. In this context, consumption is now more than just serving the purpose, but also gaining the meaning of socialising which combines complex affairs and occasions. Family, being a major factor on socialising, is also a key factor on establishing in dividual consumption behavior. It is because a child’s personality is formed mostly by his/her family. By these characteristic values comes the consumption habits such as style and amount of purchasing, method of payment, attitude toward advertisement and watching TV commercials. Families behaviour towards child’s development is highly important and a child’s psycologhy and characteristics are shaping according to parental styles.Some parents exercises influence over their children and want them to obey. This study specifies the parental styles and how they create perception discrepancy among children’s advertisement awareness, communication, limiting their behaviours, meeting their demands and food arrangements. At first, four types of parental styles are determined as tolerative, inattentive, oppressive, disciplined and in order to identify the perception discrepancies among the children regarding advertisement awareness, communication, limiting their behaviours, meeting their demands and food arrangements, the ANOVA analysis has been conducted and observed the existence of these disrepancies among the parental sytles.
... We also controlled for various socioeconomic characteristics (employment status, occupational position, educational level). These characteristics might covary with both mothers' WFC and children's well-being, hence confounding the relationship between the two (Bianchi and Milkie 2010; Monna and Gauthier 2008;Sayer et al. 2004). We controlled for mothers' and their partners' employment status by assigning their working hours to the categories "not employed", "parttime", "full-time" and "overtime (more than 44 h weekly)". ...
Objectives
Work-family conflict (WFC) has severe negative effects on workers’ health and well-being. This study examined whether parents’ WFC also affects the well-being of their children. It was analyzed whether, and to what extent, maternal WFC is associated with child emotional and behavioral problems, and whether this association is mediated by mothers’ use of harsh parenting practices.
Methods
Using data from two waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam) a total of 1781 children and their employed mothers were analyzed using mediation modeling with pooled OLS regressions.
Results
The analyses show that children whose mothers experience higher levels of WFC report higher levels of emotional problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity. The results also indicate that this association is mediated by mothers’ parenting behavior.
Conclusions
The findings suggest that mothers’ parenting behavior underpins the association between maternal WFC and child behavioral problems: Mothers who experience higher levels of WFC use harsher parenting practices, which negatively affects their children’s well-being.
... In developed, non-Catholic countries, the workload of women is equal to that of men (Burda et al., 2013). However, these differences persist in societies that continue to adhere to the clear separation of the masculine and feminine spheres (Gauthier & DeGusti, 2012, Gimenez-Nadal & Sevilla, 2014Monna & Gauthier, 2008). ...
“This book is not addressed to the learned, or to those who regard a practical problem merely as something to be talked about,” with this sentence English philosopher Bertrand Russell began The Conquest of Happiness and it has become an inspiration for me and a starting point for my analysis. Staying true to Russell's ideas, I have written a book which—I believe—can be addressed to all (scholars as well) who are interested in happiness and how it can be achieved. I have placed my considerations on happiness in the areas we all know: family, marriage, children and gender. When writing the book I surfed through Internet forums and analysed the results of scientific studies in order to scrutinise Russell's seven causes of unhappiness: competition (when investing in children), boredom (of doing housework), fatigue (of double shift), envy and comparisons of mothers, males’ sense of sin, persecution mania and new fathers’ fears of public opinion. Let's be honest: my findings are not always nice. Not infrequently, the results of scientists' work contradict what we believe. Read it only if you are ready to face new and unexpected.
... What do we know about the implications of parental efforts on GC's wellbeing? Literature confirms that parental time investment in children is important to the development of human capital, and it is a key to their healthy development, both socially and psychologically (e.g., Guryan et al., 2008;Monna & Gauthier, 2008). Multi-disciplinary studies confirm that patterns shaped in childhood carry strong effects over outcomes at adulthood (e.g., Black et al., 2007;Currie & Thomas, 1995;Heckman & Mosso, 2014;McLeod & Kaiser, 2004;Mensah & Hobcraft, 2008), arguing that the foundations for adult success and failure are laid down in early life (Conti & Heckman, 2014). ...
The article addresses a novel concept: Parental Happiness Management (PHM)—which refers to parents’ educational or decisions aimed to improve their children’s well-being in adulthood. We ran a survey among 1,110 adults and asked them to retrospectively assess four types of parental decisions: discipline, autonomy, pro-social preferences, and parental acceptance. The results confirm the association between retrospective assessments of PHM and adults’ subjective well-being as measured by global life evaluation, positive, and negative feelings, and a sense of meaning in life. We report a positive association between discipline and meaning in life, but also between discipline and negative feelings. Education for pro-social preferences was found to be positively associated with all components of subjective well-being. The child’s autonomy was found to be positively associated with global life evaluation. We view parents as managers, who allocate their limited parental resources so as to maximize their children’s well-being in adulthood.
... Parenting affects not only children's achievements [2,11] but also their motivation to achieve [7,12,13]. Parental time investment in children is important to their healthy development, both socially and psychologically [14,15]; that is, life patterns shaped in childhood carry strong effects on outcomes in adulthood [16,17]. ...
This study addresses the novel concept of two types of parental academic support (PAS), namely, as a companion and as a manager, and identifies the effect of children’s perceived PAS on their psychological attributes and academic achievements. The data include a nationally representative sample of 6836 students from the Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013. A correlation analysis showed that the two types of PAS had a positive relation with adolescents’ development; however, a structural equation model showed a negative effect of PAS as a manager. Children’s perceived PAS as managers had no effect on their self-regulation or academic achievement after 3 years, surprisingly, was found to increase their amotivation. Children’s perceived PAS as companions had a long-term, positive effect on adolescents’ development and academic achievements. The results suggest that parents should recognize their children’s autonomy and provide academic support on an equal level. Further multidimensional PAS studies should be conducted with more detailed questions.
... Third, we contribute to the literature on parental time investment decisions, which are known to be crucial for fostering a child's development. A variety of theoretical frameworks have been proposed to explain individual differences in parental time spent with children (see Monna & Gauthier, 2008 for a review). We address the gap in understanding to what extent the decisions that parents make with respect to how they allocate time spent with their children are biased by parent-child information friction. ...
We examine the effect of parental misbeliefs about their child’s academic achievement on household investment in children’s education in China. We find that nearly 60 per cent of parents hold inaccurate beliefs about their child’s educational performance. Parental upward biased beliefs are positively associated with both financial and time investment in their children’s education. The results for financial and time investment are mainly driven by paternal and maternal upward biased beliefs, respectively, reflecting differences in credit and time constraints on each parent. We find that parental educational expectations, confidence in their child’s future and parenting style are underlying mechanisms through which parental misbeliefs affect household education investment. Our findings suggest that mistaken parental beliefs may have an important role to play in narrowing educational inequality.
... Besides, Evans and Kelley (2002) find that the perceptions on whether institutional childcare can provide enough individual attention and affection cause the largest impact on the approval of institutional childcare. In the same vein, Monna and Gauthier (2008) conclude that next to socio-economic characteristics also norms and values about parental involvement are important factors regarding the decision about the time parents devote to their children. ...
Early childhood development is considered a crucial component for sustainable development, and parents’ roles in this regard is unambiguously acknowledged. However, the evidence is sparsely available from developing countries like India on how parents can influence access to the early childhood development program. This study, based on an empirical footing, investigates whether parental attitude may lead to unequal opportunities in children’s access to preschools in India. The study portrays that the negative or indifferent attitude of parents predicts significantly lower access to preschools. Also, parents’ education can be held responsible for the variation in parents’ attitudes toward early education and care. A two-prong policy measure is thus suggested by educating parents on one hand and involving them in the implementation process of childhood development programs on the other.
... In relation to parenting practices, only-children reported spending considerable time with their parents one-onone while in non-single child families, time was mostly spent as a family and, some parents with multiple children raised concerns about not being able to spend individual time with their adolescent. Time investment in a child has been recognized as a form of positive parenting (Wall, 2010) with a beneficial effect on child development (Monna & Gauthier, 2008), so parenting in one-child families could entail positive outcomes for children. ...
Globally, the average number of children per household is expected to drop to 1.0 by 2020. Single-child families are increasingly the norm, with nearly half of British families classified as single-child. Despite this, research on only-children and their families is scant. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, this study explores parenting of adolescents in British single-child families. Single-child (31 adolescents, 47 mothers, 25 fathers) and multiple-children families (46 adolescents, 76 mothers, 31 fathers) completed online surveys. In-depth interviews were also conducted with 15 only-child families and 15 multiple-child families. All adolescents were aged 11 years to 14 years. Surveys did not find any differences in parenting between one-child and multiple-children families. However, interview data found single-child families were more child-centered, reporting higher overprotective and pushy parenting, but less authoritative and authoritarian parenting. Findings challenge negative stereotyping of single-child families and provide an in-depth insight into the experiences of adolescent only-children and their parents.
... For men, education was found to most significantly (positively) affect the likelihood of reducing work hours (p = 0.027), and age was almost significant (p = 0.055) for negatively influencing the likelihood of work-hour reduction. The finding that better-educated fathers were more likely to reduce their work hours following the move is supported by existing literature, which shows that highly educated men are more likely to prioritize being involved parents (Monna & Gauthier, 2008) and to hold more egalitarian gender-role ideologies (Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004). ...
Planning and housing policies influence our daily lives. They determine where we live, where we work, where our children study, and the time it takes us to commute between these places. As such, planning and housing policy often affects individuals' and households' satisfaction with each of these and determines the price to be paid by anyone who is not satisfied and wishes to make a change. On the basis of this fundamental premise, we set out to examine how Israel's planning and housing policy has influenced the decision of middle-class families to migrate away from the metropolitan core and the implications of the move for the employment situations of these families, and of women in these families in particular. The analysis is based on a large survey of women and men in Israel who moved away from the heart of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area into smaller municipalities on its outskirts. The study has three theoretical pillars: planning and housing policy, internal migration, and women's employment. We examine the relationship between these pillars, focusing on its implications for various aspects of women's employment. The findings show that women are more likely than men to change their place of work following the move and to suffer a decrease in income, and to trade higher-paying jobs for a shorter commute. These findings show how planning and housing policies can increase gender inequality in the labour market and point to how it can be avoided. This issue is relevant today more than ever in the face of the dramatic changes women's employment has undergone over the last century, and in particular, in face of the current global housing affordability crisis and its impact on migration trends of middle-class families.
... First, the Danish families participating in the current study were homogeneous concerning their socio-economic status and education level. Highly educated parents generally spend more time with their children (Monna & Gauthier, 2008) and provide their children with more stimulating environments in which to grow up (Hart & Risley, 1992). Moreover, gender differences are less significant among individuals with a high education level (Brannon, 2000). ...
Despite the extensive bulk of literature on maternal reminiscing style, only a handful of reminiscing studies have investigated gender differences in parental reminiscing style, with none of these studies having explored the possible relationship between parental involvement level and parental reminiscing style. The current study investigated gender differences in parental reminiscing style across positive and negative event types in an egalitarian Scandinavian context while exploring the potential relationship between parental reminiscing style and parental involvement level. Mothers and fathers from N = 88 families reminisced about shared happy and sad events, respectively, with their 4‐year‐old children. Overall, parental involvement level was not related to parental reminiscing style. However, mothers’ elaborations and positive evaluations were associated with their level of involvement level in the sad event conversations. Although mothers and fathers did not differ in their reminiscing style overall, gender differences appeared in the consistency of parental reminiscing style across event types.
... Even at moments when no care is being given, caregivers are often mentally still preoccupied. This also limits how much time and energy can be given to others (Monna and Gauthier 2008). ...
Although the historical Dutch and Taiwanese populations studied are very different, sibship size and composition influenced the survival of infants and children in both. In general, the presence of siblings led to higher infant and child mortality risks. This is in line with what we know about sibling rivalry and parental investment, which suggest that parents need to make decisions regarding the amount of resources to allocate to each child. Yet, my study also demonstrates that the way siblings influenced infant and child mortality risks differs within and between the Netherlands and Taiwan due to regional variation in economic conditions, cultural norms, and household organisation. My dissertation therefore gives insight into the conditions under which siblings have an effect on the creation of health inequalities. This is important, since this subject not only has broad implications for how we understand the lives of our predecessors, but also those of ourselves.
ISBN: 978-94-6421-024-8
... The study contributed to the literature by including husbands regarding the perceptions of parental investment and children's value. Since gender difference is a crucial component in understanding parental involvement in children (Monna and Gauthier 2008), it is essential to include fathers' perceptions and experiences. ...
This study provides a review of papers published on Asian families and consumers in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues over the previous decade (2010–2019). A meta-analysis of the published papers reveals that there were 34 research papers published across 5 themes including consumer behavior, family relations, health and well-being, household finance, and other economic issues. Twenty-four of these papers were published during 2010–2014, and the remaining 10 were published during 2015–2019. Most papers were published on the theme of consumer behavior and most citations were also received on papers published on the consumer behavior theme. However, more recently published papers on Asian families and consumers during the second half of the previous decade (2015–2019) have focused on the themes of household finance, family relations, and health and well-being. As Asian societies continue to transform with rapid economic growth and development across Asia, future research directions on Asian families and consumers are proposed on the following three perspectives: 1) longitudinal studies to investigate various issues related to Asian families and consumers across time, 2) a greater focus on rural families and consumers across Asia, and 3) topics of income inequality and access to goods and services and its impacts on lower-income families.
... The results in Table 2 suggest that it is the other way around, giving support to status inconsistency theory's claim that abuse and exploitation increase when women's resources exceed men's, as when women are more educated or when they work and their partners do not (see the positive coefficients for these variables in Table 2). And yet, however unlikely, it is still possible that women's work and education may themselves be a function of abuse -as when women seek an exit to their victimization -or of exploitation -as when women multiply gender displays at home so as to gain access to external resources (Monna & Gauthier, 2008). These recursive effects are even less likely to occur when dealing with resources that, like ethnic or native status, are ascribed rather than attained, especially when the victim or the exploited is the advantaged member in the couple. ...
We test two theories explaining domestic exploitation and violent abuse against women in couples. Exchange theory predicts both to increase when men outpower women; status inconsistency, when women do. Because violence and exploitation can affect couple's resources, making the model recursive, we focus on native status. Using data from a women's victimization survey (N≈8,000), we apply biprobit models to compare violent abuse and domestic exploitation in homogenous and mixed couples in which he or she is the migrant. The results validate status inconsistency theory: Native women with male migrants are less exploited but have the highest risks of being abused.
... More egalitarian attitudes relate to women's higher involvement in paid work (Steiber & Haas, 2009) as well as more equally sharing housework (Aassve, Fuochi, & Mencarini, 2014) and childcare (Monna & Gauthier, 2008). However, gender attitudes do not always match couples' WFA: Individuals' actual WFA may deviate from their gender role attitudes due to institutional and normative constraints as well as pragmatic decisions (Bühlmann, Elcheroth, & Tettamanti, 2009;Treas & Tai, 2016). ...
This article examines the relationship between couples' work-family arrangement and individuals' perceived work-family conflict (WFC), considering individuals' attitudes towards gender roles and national gender culture in 37 countries (N = 15,114). Previous research has shown that WFC depends on work and family demands and has mostly accounted for absolute time spent in paid and domestic work. We hypothesize that WFC depends on couples' work-family arrangement in terms of time spent in paid, domestic and care work. We further expect that the relationship between couples' work-family arrangement and WFC depends on individuals' gender attitudes and national gender culture. To test these assumptions, we use the ISSP-2012 data and apply multilevel linear regression analyses. The findings indicate that an egalitarian work-family arrangement-that is, sharing paid, domestic and care work equally with one's partner-is associated with lower levels of WFC. Moreover, individuals with egalitarian gender attitudes and an egalitarian work-family arrangement experience less WFC than individuals with inconsistent attitudes and behaviours. Individuals with consistent traditional attitudes and behaviours experience the most conflict. Finally, a more egalitarian gender culture relates to less WFC. Cross-level interactions indicate that the relationship between work-family arrangement and WFC is not mediated by countries' gender culture.
This article brings up to date welfare regime differences in the time fathers spend on childcare and core housework, using Multinational Time Use Study data (1971-2010) from fifteen countries. Although Nordic fathers continue to set the bar, the results provide some support for the idea of a catch-up in core housework among Southern regime fathers. The results also suggest an increasing polarization in Liberal countries, whereby fathers who were meaningfully involved in family life were increasingly likely to spend more time doing core housework and, particularly, childcare. Fathers living in Corporatist countries have been least responsive to change.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus first on the development of the segregation of tasks in family and housework in Switzerland and its linkage to the gender time-use gap in unpaid work. In addition, the impact of dual-breadwinner support in policies and culture is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical test refers to a comparison of Swiss cantons, and is based on data from the Swiss Labour Force Survey. The analysis traces both the gender gap and segregation from 2000 to 2013, compares them between 25 Swiss cantons, and links them to political and cultural dual-breadwinner support.
Findings
First, the results suggest that both the gender time-use gap and task segregation in unpaid work decrease in Switzerland. Moreover, the gender gap and segregation do not correlate in the sample of Swiss cantons. Second, both the gender gap and segregation correlate with dual-breadwinner support. However, the political dual-breadwinner support is linked to lower segregation, a smaller gender gap, more male and less female housework, the dual-breadwinner culture promotes female housework and both men’s and women’s family time spent on childcare, without affecting the gender gap and segregation.
Research limitations/implications
The results, on the one hand, suggest that both the gender time-use gap and the segregation are important but analytically different dimensions of gender equity. On the other hand, the cross-cantonal analysis highlights the socio-political structuration of gender inequality.
Originality/value
The paper contains the first comparative analysis of the gender time-use gap and task segregation in Switzerland. The results underline the analytical distinction between the gender time-use gap and the task segregation in family and housework. Moreover, the cross-cantonal analysis suggests that the political dual-breadwinner support is an important determinant of the gender divide in unpaid work.
In this paper, we examine how married dual-earner mothers and fathers of preschool-age children rate their own involvement in parenting, and their spouse's involvement in parenting. Five dimensions of parenting are examined: discipline, support for spouse, spending time with children, praise and affection, and attentiveness. Several comparisons between mothers’ and fathers’ ratings are made. We find that both mothers and fathers rated themselves most highly on praise and affection and lowest on discipline, and also rated their spouse least favorably in terms of discipline. In general, mothers were more generous in their ratings of fathers, than fathers were in their ratings of mothers. These findings are discussed in light of self-determination theory, which is used to frame our analysis.
Sleep, like paid work and unpaid family work, is situated in the work-family nexus, and can be shaped by national norms promoting gender equality. We tested this proposition using individual data from the European Social Survey matched to a country-level measure of gender inequality. At the individual level, we show that men's and women's sleep is affected by health, physical inactivity, work schedules, and stresses and worries about finances and family life. There are three ways in which gender inequality in sleep emerges: (1) women's sleep, but not men's, is most disrupted when they have a young child at home; (2) at all stages of the life course, women's sleep is worse than men's; and (3) the gender gap in sleep disruption increases with societal levels of gender inequality. This study adds to our understanding of gender differences in sleep quality and provides new evidence on the importance of the national context in shaping the pattern of gender inequality in the domestic sphere.
This paper investigates the effects of parenting time on macroeconomic outcomes and welfare when parenting choices are determined by own childhood experience and social norms in an overlapping generations framework. Parenting time and material expenditures on children generate children’s human capital. When the share of parenting time is relatively low and parenting and leisure are complements or weak substitutes the model has two steady-state equilibria with different welfare levels. In the high-welfare equilibrium parents have stronger endogenous taste for parenting and spend more time with children and less in paid work. Higher productivity due to the higher human capital more than compensates for the reduction in working hours, leading to a higher output level, in comparison to the low-welfare equilibrium.
El análisis del bienestar en la infancia sigue requiriendo del desarrollo de marcos teóricos y empíricos apropiados para su medición y evaluación desde un punto de vista ampliado. Para ello, es esencial considerar cuestiones que tradicionalmente han sido olvidadas, como los usos que hacen de su tiempo los niños y las niñas. En este sentido, el estudio de las actividades a las que dedican su tiempo mantiene una relación directa con su bienestar, especialmente en lo que respecta a su autosatisfacción y la adquisición de habilidades específicas para sus vidas presentes y futuras.
Sin embargo, uno de los mayores retos que se presentan en relación a esta cuestión es la dificultad de su operacionalización. Para contribuir a la superación de este reto, en este trabajo se trata de hacer una revisión de cuáles han sido las principales metodologías de análisis. Asimismo, se trata de profundizar en nuevas metodologías de análisis de uso del tiempo desde una perspectiva participativa, que pone a los niños y niñas en el centro. Con ello, se trata de dar cabida a nuevos enfoques de métodos mixtos que trasciendan los tradicionales enfoques cuantitativos basados en las Encuestas de Empleo del Tiempo.
In this study we investigate the gender division of labour in the physical and financial care of children in South Africa, in the context of large race differences in rates of union formation and parent–child co-residence. Using national micro-data, we show that across a variety of household forms, women are the primary caregivers of children even when they are not a child’s biological mother. Women are also more likely to provide physical care than men are to provide financial support for children’s schooling. However, this gender imbalance is far larger in the case of African children, the majority of whom do not live with their father. For most African children, both their physical and financial care is provided by women who are typically the child’s biological mother, but also the child’s grandmother or another female relative.
There are recognised cross-national differences in the average amount and gender division of paid work and unpaid domestic work and care, but country differences between men and women in the timing and intensity of this daily workload remain under-investigated. Using couple-level time-use data from Australia, the UK, Finland, Korea and Spain (n = 1838), we probe cross-national differences in gendered time availability and constraint, focusing particularly on the early evening ‘family rush hour’. We identify daily time periods during which one partner in a fulltime dual-earner parent couple performs routine time-critical household labor and care, whilst the other partner is simultaneously at leisure. In all five countries fathers in dual fulltime earner couples are more likely than mothers to be at leisure whilst their partner does unpaid work, and this disparity occurs most in the early evening. Multivariate analyses reveal the unpaid work-leisure gap is widest in Korea and narrowest in the UK, confounding expectations that social democratic Finland would be most equitable in this measure.
Sleep is situated in the work–family nexus and can be shaped by national norms promoting gender equality. The authors tested this proposition using individual data from the European Social Survey matched to a country‐level measure of gender equality. In individual‐level models, women's sleep was more troubled by the presence of children in the home and partners' unemployment, whereas men's restless sleep was associated with their own unemployment and worries about household finances. In country‐level models, the authors find that in nations that empower women and elevate their status, men and women alike report sounder sleep, and the gender gap in restless sleep is significantly reduced among those living in gender‐equal countries. This study adds to the understanding of gender differences in sleep quality and provides new evidence on the importance of the national context in shaping the pattern of gender inequality in the domestic sphere.
Using nationally representative Time Use Surveys from Australia, Korea, and Finland (n = 19,127 diaries) we examine how parenthood and the age of the youngest child are associated with the recuperative activities of leisure and sleep, the productive activities of market and nonmarket work, and with subjective time stress. Time stress differences by fatherhood are greatest for Finns and least for Koreans; time stress differences by motherhood are absent for Finns and high for Australians and Koreans. Results of the comparative analysis suggest that social policy and average national working hours produce different gendered gaps in both objective and subjective time stress among parents.
State-level policies in Ohio during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States involved physical school closures and work-from-home requirements when possible. Presumably, these policies and resulting impacts on homes with children would alter parent time investments in their children with respect to home-learning activities. In this study, we assessed parent time investments specific to home-learning activities with their children, and key predictors of these investments. Using data from a comprehensive survey completed by 559 caregivers of children (aged birth to 9 years) during a state-mandated stay-at-home order and widespread school closure, we assessed whether parent time investments in children's learning were associated with: (1) parents’ mental health and social connectedness, (2) children's level of emotional distress, and (3) household characteristics including chaos, social needs, and structure. Results indicate significant negative associations between each of parent loneliness, children's emotional distress, and household chaos with parent time investments in children's learning, controlling for parents’ socio-demographic and economic status. This suggests that parent time investments during the early stages of the pandemic were limited by a number of factors outside of socioeconomic resources. Further research is needed to understand the long-term effects of home environments, including parent time investments in children's learning, on child development during this unprecedented time in world history.
Background
This study identified latent trajectory classes for maternal problem drinking and paternal problem drinking and examined the associations between these trajectory classes and offspring anxiety symptoms during adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Methods
Participants (n = 870; 54% female; 59% non-Hispanic White; Mage = 16.10, SD = 0.71) were administered surveys during the spring of 2007, 2008, and 2009, and 2014.
Results
Fit indices from parallel process growth mixture models suggested three dual trajectory classes: (1) Low initial levels of maternal problem drinking and paternal problem drinking that increased over time (Low-Both); (2) Low initial levels of maternal problem drinking that increased over time and high initial levels of paternal problem drinking that increased slightly over time (Low-Mom/High-Dad); (3) High initial levels of maternal problem drinking that increased slightly over time and low initial levels of paternal problem drinking that remained relatively stable over time (High-Mom/Low-Dad). Girls were more likely than boys to be classified in the Low-Mom/High-Dad and High-Mom/Low-Dad classes, relative to the Low-Both trajectory class. In addition, adolescents in the High-Mom/Low-Dad trajectory class reported the most anxiety symptoms during adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Limitations
Limitations include the reliance on one informant (the adolescent/emerging adult) and the geographically limited sample (northeastern United States).
Conclusions
Prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing anxiety should consider changes in alcohol use in both the father and the mother over time. Moreover, special attention should be paid to maternal problem drinking given that it appears to be a salient risk factor for anxiety during adolescence and emerging adulthood.
This chapter reviews recent research concerning the levels, origins. and consequences of paternal involvement. Its focus is restricted to adult lathers in heterosexual two-parent families, as other chapters in this volume consider other important paternal groups. Investigations conducted in the United States provide most of the data discussed here, but some research from other industrial countries is included.
Several themes guide the chapter. Data on fathers' average level of involvement are of great interest to many people, but these assessments vary considerably according to many factors, not least the measures used. Descriptive results on fathers' average levels of involvement are actually far more variable than is generally realized. Nonetheless there is a tendency to think that the question "How involved are U.S. fathers?" should have a simple answer.
Further conceptualization is needed of the origins and sources of paternal involvement. Lamb. Pleck, Charnov, and Levine (1985: Pleck, Lamb, & Levine 1986) proposed a four-factor model for its sources: motivation, skills and self-confidence. social supports. and institutional practices. This framework needs to be integrated with other available models for the determinants of fathering, and with more general theoretical perspectives on parental functioning. Because the construct of paternal involvement called attention to an important dimension of fathers' behavior neglected in prior research and theory. it was an important advance. However, the utility, of the construct in its original. content-free sense now needs to be reconsidered. The critical question is: How good is the evidence that fathers' amount of involvement, without taking into account its content and quality, is consequential for children, mothers, or fathers themselves?
What parents do for children "matters"-or so it is assumed. Much of the literature on social inequality at the individual or household level in the United States has focused on the role that families play in (re)producing inequality. For example, in the late 1960s and 1970s, the most studied topic in U.S. social stratification was intergenerational occupational mobility (Blau and Duncan 1967; Duncan, Featherman, and Duncan 1972; Jencks 1972). This tradition of research in sociology has had parallel streams within economics (see, for example, Robert Haveman and Barbara Wolfe's 1994 book Succeeding Generations). The continued focus on mechanisms through which parents monitor children's educational progress and risk-taking behavior and ensure their adult success is also manifest in the large and influential literature on the supposed harmful effects of growing up in a single-parent family. In the past decade many studies have tried to improve our understanding of what constitutes "successful parenting" and the costs that accrue when the conditions of parenting (for example, poverty or single-parenting or both) are less than optimal for producing salutary child outcomes; examples include Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur's widely cited 1994 book Growing up in a Single-Parent Family: What Hurts? What Helps? and Susan Mayer's 1997 book What Money Can't Buy: Family Income and Children's Life Chances. Beginning with the early work of James Coleman, an extensive literature developed on education that asked whether schools make a difference. The backdrop for these studies, however, was always implicitly family investment: Does the quality of schools add to the likelihood of later life success, or is variation in student performance largely determined within the family (either through genetic endowment or differential family investments or both in combination)? Recently, the importance of peer influences as determinants of child outcomes have captured the attention of researchers. Yet again, the backdrop remains the relative influence of these factors compared with genetic endowment, family factors, and parenting behaviors that help ensure children's well-being. The common theme in the large literature on the role of parents in determining children's success and well-being is that inequality in material and other investments that parents make in child-rearing may be one of the "keys" to predicting the inequality in the success of the next generation. Our subject in this chapter is the inequality in investment that occurs by socioeconomic level of the parents, focusing on the variation by college education. Several changes in U.S. society since the 1970s lead us to speculate that differentials in parents' ability to bestow resources on their children may be widening in recent years. First, as the wage gap between college-educated and less-educated workers widened in the 1980s and 1990s, income growth for children living in families with a college-educated parent outpaced that of children whose parent had less than a college degree. The family income distribution for children became more unequal after 1973. The Gini index for the income of children's families increased from 0.356 to 0.470 between 1973 and 1996 (Levy 1998, 164). Second, the growth in single-parent families shifted many children living only with their mother to the bottom of the income distribution (Cancian and Reed 1999; Chevan and Stokes 2000; Karoly and Burtless 1995; Levy 1998), and the prevalence of single-parenthood has been greater for less-than-college-educated men and women than for those with a college education. It is hypothesized that the decline in men's economic ability to support a family, combined with the availability of public assistance, has eroded the benefits of marriage among less-than-college-educated men and women (Becker 1981; Becker, Landes, and Michael 1977; Murray 1984; Oppenheimer 2000; Wilson 1987, 1996). Finally, there has been a dramatic increase in the employment of married mothers who responded to increased educational and labor force opportunities in recent decades, and that increase has been especially pronounced among more-educated women (Cohen and Bianchi 1999; Juhn, Murphy, and Pierce 1993). More and more children reside in two-parent families where both parents are employed. Wives' employment reached 80 percent for married-couple families in the top income quintile in 1996, up from 32 percent in 1949 (Levy 1998, table 2.4). Although families at all income levels experienced an increase in wives' employment, the increase is greater for highly educated women than for less-educated women. Moreover, high rates of marital homogamy by educational attainment have also been increasing (see Kalmijn 1991; Mare 1995). Thus, well-educated, dual-earner, two-parent families now typify families at the top of the family income distribution. Children with college-educated parents seem to be in a better position economically compared with children whose parents are not collegeeducated. As college-educated parents' family income rose relative to that of less-educated parents, the better-educated parents may have also become better able to make large financial investments in their children. In this chapter, we examine three major ways in which parents invest in their children. First, we focus on child-oriented expenditures. If, as Frank Levy (1998) argues, the family income of children's families by level of parents' education became more unequal, other things being equal, it would follow that expenditures targeted toward children should also have become more unequal. This implies that child-related purchases have increased or decreased at the same rate at which family income has increased or decreased. However, it may well be that parents protect monetary provisions for their children relative to other household expenditures. If this is the case, we would expect such expenditures to be inelastic relative to changes in income over time. By analyzing direct expenditures on children, we can ascertain whether increased income inequality has substantially increased the dispersion of material investments in children. Second, parents engage in an array of activities with their children that are aimed at promoting the health and well-being of their offspring. Mothers in higher-income households used to stay at home, at least when their children were young, and early time diary studies suggested that highly educated mothers did more enriching activities with their children than less-educated mothers (Leibowitz 1974; Hill and Stafford 1985). The increase in employment among college-educated mothers and the increase in family income for those with a college education suggest two countervailing possibilities in trends in the inequality in parental time investment in children. On the one hand, there may be growing similarity in maternal time investments in child-rearing across the income distribution as employment rates rise among highly educated, married mothers. Moreover, because of the increase in family income, highly educated parents may have encountered disincentives to use parental care for their children because the opportunity costs of time spent parenting, primarily mothers' time, have increased (Becker 1981). On the other hand, if parents wish to spend time with their children regardless of their level of education and family income, then it may be easier for well-educated parents than for less-educated parents to protect time for their children from the demands of paid work because they may have higher status, more flexible jobs, and a greater ability to purchase housekeeping services, prepared meals, and other services that reduce housework other than child care. How these countervailing tendencies have affected overall parental time with children is not immediately obvious, nor is it clear, without empirical investigation, whether these changes served to heighten socioeconomic differences in parental time with children, lessen them, or leave them unchanged. Finally, from the point of view of children, having healthy parents is an important advantage. Although the link between parental health behaviors and child outcomes is not as direct as that between the time and money spent on children and child outcomes, staying healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is an indirect but important "investment" that parents can make in their children to enhance their children's life chances (see Zill 1999, 2000).
Divorce and remarriage have become prominent features of American life. Nowadays many parents divide their attention and resources among two or more families, and children frequently grow up with multiple parents. Using a nationally representative household sample of children, we describe relations among parents, stepparents, and children after separation and divorce. Our results suggest that most children have little contact with their nonresident parents, and what contact there is tends to be social rather than instrumental. Contrary to popular impressions, however, when the former spouse remains active in the child's life, stepfamily life—at least in mother-stepfather families—does not seem to suffer.
Maternal gatekeeping is conceptualized within the framework of the social construction of gender and it defined as having three dimensions: mothers' reluctance to relinquish responsibility over family matters by setting rigid standards, external validation of a mothering identity, and differentiated conceptions of family roles. These three conceptual dimensions of gatekeeping are operationalized with modest reliability and tested with a confirmatory factor analysis on a sample of 622 dual-earner mothers. With cluster analyses, 21% of the mothers were classified as gatekeepers. Gatekeepers did 5 more hours of family work per week and had less equal divisions of labor than women classified as collaborators.
Three general value perspectives on men's family work (i.e., their housework and childcare) are evident in previous literature. From the traditional perspective men are viewed as having relatively little responsibility for family work, with justification provided by role differentiation, exchange, and resource theories. From the exploitation perspective, stimulated by contemporary feminism as well as time budget research, men's low level of family work is seen as causing serious problems of role overload for employed wives. From the changing roles perspective, the fact that men currently perform relatively little family work is acknowledged, but men are viewed as changing, as beginning to enlarge their family role to complement their traditional primary role in paid work. Five areas of research deriving from the changing roles perspective are described. Finally, findings are presented from a new study which provides evidence that men's family roles are indeed changing: unlike earlier studies, men in the late 1970's are increasing their family work when their wives are employed.
Using data from a U.S. midwestern sample of mothers and fathers, the authors examine whether using workplace flexibility policies alters time spent in housework and child care. They hypothesize that an individual’s policy use will lead to more time in domestic labor and that his or her spouse’s policy use will lead to less time in domestic labor. Several results support their hypotheses. Mothers who work part-time spend more time in housework and their husbands spend less time in housework. Also, mothers who work at home spend more time in child care. One policy has the opposite of the predicted effect: Wives with flexible work schedules do less housework, and their husbands do more. Overall, mothers’ policy use has counterbalancing effects on their own and their spouses’ domestic labor time, implying that policy use has little net impact on total domestic labor time within dual-earner families.
Lately, in Norway, as in many other countries, there has been considerable focus on social inequalities among women. It seems that the level of education is of great significance for women's practices and ideals in many areas. Norwegian time-use studies from 1970, 1980 and 1990 were used to investigate whether level of education affects mothers' priorities regarding housework and childcare and how this changed during the 1970s and 1980s. Also discussed is how differences in terms of housework and childcare time should be assessed and evaluated. During the years in question, there was a clear tendency towards highly educated mothers spending less time on housework than mothers with a lower level of education, but the differences diminished somewhat during the period. In 1970, 1980 and 1990 there was a tendency for well-educated mothers to spend more time on active childcare than mothers with less education. Dissimilarities in this area were rather stable. Concerning total time spent with children, there were minor differences among mothers in relation to level of education in all three years investigated. Hence, it seems that well-educated mothers model their childcare somewhat differently from less-educated mothers in that they spend a larger proportion of their time with their children on active care. There are, then, similarities as well as dissimilarities between mothers in various educational groups regarding the way they shape their parental role, and in the 1970s and 1980s we saw an equalizing trend as well as stable inequalities.
Analyzing data from a qualitative study of 95 dual-earner couples, this article seeks to understand the critical factors that explain couples' choice of day care arrangements. The different approaches couples implement to care for their children while they earn income are (a) the “mothering” approach, (b) the parenting approach, and (c) the market approach. Changing sentiments about mothering and its centrality to decisions about how couples organize and integrate family and work lives are discussed within each approach. Finally, the article raises issues about attempts (and nonattempts) to alter work arrangements for parents to care for children.
This study uses time diary and telephone survey data from a nonrandom sample of 310 US public, elementary school teachers in 46 schools and four school districts to analyze the sources of time for employed parents to devote to their children in the US. Comparing parent and nonparent teachers for a 24-hour working day reveals that American parents spend significantly less time on work, personal time, passive leisure, and exercise, and significantly more time on child care and housework. Even so, the parent workday is far longer than the employment contract stipulates. Mild evidence suggests that supportive supervisors, shorter contractual hours, and low levels of student poverty are linked to increased parental time for children among the teachers. Evidence is found for a time transfer of work from parents to nonparents in schools with higher proportions of women teachers. Less direct evidence suggests this time transfer is voluntary.
The relation between maternal and paternal attitudes concerning paternal roles and paternal involvement with their 3-5-month-old infants was examined. A questionnaire-based study revealed that maternal attitudes predicted paternal involvement as reported by mothers. A 2nd study revealed that both maternal and paternal attitudes predicted paternal involvement as reported by both mothers and fathers. In a 3rd observational-based study, patterns of paternal stimulation of their infants were related to both maternal and paternal attitudes.
Childcare which is not subsidized in the United States is the second largest cost couples have. However, cost is not the most important factor in couple's decision making about childcare arrangements. Based on an in-depth interview study of 95 dual-earner families, we argue that these decisions are shaped by race, social class, and the beliefs about mothering. Black families are concerned about finding multi-racial settings for their children in addition to development and emotional concerns which white parents also share. But the greatest differences in decision-making are among social classes: All couples seek to maximize the extent to which .they can implement their vision of famiy life manipulating work scheduling, work satisfaction, economic needs and ideology about childrearing and motherhood.
Lately, in Norway, as in many other countries, there has been considerable focus on social inequalities among women. It seems that the level of education is of great significance for women's practices and ideals in many areas. Norwegian time-use studies from 1970, 1980 and 1990 were used to investigate whether level of education affects mothers' priorities regarding housework and childcare and how this changed during the 1970s and 1980s. Also discussed is how differences in terms of housework and childcare time should be assessed and evaluated. During the years in question, there was a clear tendency towards highly educated mothers spending less time on housework than mothers with a lower level of education, but the differences diminished somewhat during the period. In 1970, 1980 and 1990 there was a tendency for well-educated mothers to spend more time on active childcare than mothers with less education. Dissimilarities in this area were rather stable. Concerning total time spent with children, there were minor differences among mothers in relation to level of education in all three years investigated. Hence, it seems that well-educated mothers model their childcare somewhat differently from less-educated mothers in that they spend a larger proportion of their time with their children on active care. There are, then, similarities as well as dissimilarities between mothers in various educational groups regarding the way they shape their parental role, and in the 1970s and 1980s we saw an equalizing trend as well as stable inequalities.
For most adults, family and work roles are the most significant sources of identity. Historically, social scientists investigated work and family roles as if they were separate from one another; the family and the economy were studied as distinct social institutions. As more women have entered the paid labor force, researchers have paid increasing attention to linkages between family and work (Bielby and Bielby, 1988b). We can no longer ignore that most individuals are trying to balance work and family roles—87% of American adults live with other family members and 47% are responsible for the care of a dependent family member (children, ill partner, or ill parent) (Galinsky, Bond, & Friedman, 1993).
Predictors of paternal participation in childcare and housework are examined. A longitudinal sample of 66 couples expecting their 1 st child completed extensive questionnaires during the wives' last trimester of pregnancy and 3-8 months after birth. Regressions were conducted in which paternal participation in childcare and housework were regressed on variables pertaining to each of 4 models of paternal participation: relative economic resource, structural, family systems, and sex role attitude. Composite models of paternal participation in housework and childcare were then developed. Fathers' involvement in childcare is best explained by mothers' work hours and fathers' feminism. Fathers' contribution to housework seems best explained by discrepancies in income between spouses, wives' occupational prestige, and dynamics in the marriage. Differences in the determinants of fathers' contributions to childcare and housework are discussed.
Using a representative sample of married couples with preschool-aged children in the United States, this study analyzes the conditions under which husbands share household tasks conventionally performed by wives. Survey data are analyzed using LISREL VII procedures, with proportional hourly contributions to child care (feeding, bathing, dressing, or putting child to bed) and housework (housecleaning, shopping, cooking, meal cleanup or laundry) treated as conceptually distinct dependent variables. Husbands perform an average of 26 percent of the child care and 21 percent of the housework and contribute more to both child care and housework if they are employed fewer hours than their wives. For housework, couples share more if wives earn a larger share of the family income, have more education, and hold more favorable attitudes toward maternal employment. For preschool-aged child care, couples share more if they have more and older children and husbands hold more favorable attitudes toward maternal employment. Theoretical explanations for the observed findings are discussed; we advocate modeling and measuring child care and housework as distinct, but interrelated activities.
Based on intensive, qualitative interviews with 32 men, this study reports on the the meanings of time for fathers from intact families with young children (under the age of 6). Men's experience of time provides some insight into why they have been slow to increase their time commitment to family activities, even when their wives enter the labor force. The fathers in this study believed in the priority of spending time with their children but, at the same time, lamented that making time for family was costly, fixed in amount, and largely beyond their control to change due to the demands of their paid work. In order for men to have a different experience of time, changes are required at three levels: individual attitudes about time, control over time in the work place, and systemic realignments in parenting practices.
Time demands are indicative of stress faced by individuals and the consequences are often felt by families. By studying time use by mothers in single and two parent families, with both employed and nonemployed mothers, comparisons can be made and used by family practitioners and counselors. Single, employed mothers have the least amount of time to spend in most activities. Analysis of covariance and least square means were used to study and to identify significant differences in household tasks, child care, volunteer time, personal care, and social and recreational activities.
This study explores explanations for gender differences in caregiving to elderly parents. Similar to housekeeping and child care, caregiving to elderly parents is a type of family division of labor. Consequently, four popular hypotheses of family labor are applied—the time-available hypothesis, the socialization/ideology hypothesis, the external-resources hypothesis, and the specialization-of-tasks hypothesis. Data obtained from a survey of adult respondents who currently have a mother over the age of 70 reveal that these theories of gender differences in divisions of family labor do not adequately explain caregiving for the elderly. The structural nature of the lack of contributions of males to family caregiving is addressed.
This study examines cross-sectional differences in fathers' involvement with their adolescent chidren, using data from the National Survey of Children. The analysis focuses on 184 sib pairs and identifies factors associated with variability both within and between sibships. Characteristics that differentiate sibs—age and gender—are found to affect within-family variability. Gender composition, birth order, education of father, and wife's report of marital satisfaction are associated with variability in father's involvement across sibships. More detailed analysis of the effects of gender and gender composition suggest that while daughters receive less attention from fathers than do sons, this differential is attenuated by belonging to a sibship that contains more brothers. That is, daughters with brothers are advantaged relative to other girls. Sons are advantaged by being the "only boy."
This article examines how much fathers participate in child care, an important component of domestic duties, and factors related to it. It has the advantage of longitudinal data, so that it is possible to look at changes in fathers' participation and factors affecting changes and continuities over time. The data come from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1993 National Surveys of Families and Households. The sample is restricted to White, two-parent families with at least one child younger than 5 years of age at the time of the first survey. The analyses control for the number of children and the gender of the child for whom there is fathering information. Based on prior theories and research, the study variables related to fathers' child care include performance of household tasks, their marital quality, gender role ideologies, perceptions of the fairness of the division of domestic labor, and the mothers' child-care hours. The labor-force variables are the husbands' and wives' hours of paid employment, as well as the earned incomes of husbands and wives. The findings indicate that hours on the job keep some men from active fathering, but if they begin taking care of young children, a continuing pattern is established. Mothers' child-care hours are positively related to fathers' child care, and fathers do more with sons. The discussion places the findings in theoretical context.
Using data from the first wave of the NSFH, this article examines differences between Anglo, African American, and Hispanic parents in independence giving to adolescents. Hypotheses are developed and tested based on the assumption that the parenting behaviors of minority group parents are shaped by unique patterns of adaptation derived from cultural origins in interaction with the conditions of minority group status and assimilation. Results show distinct patterns of independence giving across racial groups by gender and age of the adolescent. Differences from Anglos are attributed to values of modified patriarchy and communalism among African Americans and values of patriarchy and familism among Hispanics.
Fathers' participation in child care has implications for the well-being of both parents, and thus, factors influencing participation need investigation. This study examines the relationship between maternal employment characteristics and father participation in child care by comparing trends in two samples of couples: (a) a heterogeneous sample of 214 homemakers and employed women and (b) a sample of 139 professional women. Results indicate that husbands are more involved in child care when their wives are employed. However, women are the primary caregivers regardless of employment status. Implications are discussed with an appreciation of the complexity of the child care participation process.
Has fatherhood changed in the wake of the social and economic changes that have taken place in America since the turn of the century? Although the evidence is scant, it would appear that the answer to this question is both yes and no. Yes, fatherhood has changed, if one looks at the culture of fatherhood--the ideologies surrounding men's parenting. No, fatherhood has not changed (at least significantly), if one looks at the conduct of fatherhood--how fathers behave vis-a-vis their children. The consequences of this asynchrony between the culture and conduct of fatherhood are, as this article demonstrates, both positive and negative and need to be addressed by family researchers and practitioners alike.
Analyses of data from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households demonstrated that parents' gender did not account for family structure variations in parental socialization. Among parents (n = 3,738) of children aged 15 to 18, male and female single parents reported less restrictive rules than did married parents, while stepmothers, stepfathers, and cohabiting male partners reported significantly less frequent activities with and positive responses to children than did original parents. Some evidence was found for the primary alternative explanations for these differences—that two adults are more effective than one, and that stepparents are relative strangers to children.
With the use of information pertaining to maternal employment, child care, and the socioemotional development of children from four to six years old whose mothers were studied as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the effects of early and extensive maternal employment were assessed. Families and children were compared as a function of mother's employment across the child's first three years of life. After differences that existed between families at the time of children's births were controlled, it was found that children whose mothers were employed full-time beginning in their first or second year of life scored more poorly on a composite measure of adjustment than did children whose mothers were not employed during their first three years. Follow-up analyses revealed that this effect was restricted to the compliance component of the composite adjustment measure, and that children with early and extensive maternal employment experience were significantly more noncompliant than agemates without such early experience.
In order to examine the influence of the father's personality, the infant's temperament, the marital relationship, and the work-family interface on observed father-infant interaction and reports of paternal responsibility during the infancy period, 54 dual-earner and 65 single-earner families were studied. A major goal was to explore whether specific determinants were more successful in predicting fathering in dual-earner as opposed to single-earner families (i.e., contextual specificity) and whether the prediction of fathering differed as a function of developmental period (i.e., developmental specificity). Results indicated that personality characteristics of the father were important in predicting the father's responsibility for child care in single-earner families but not in dual-earner families. The contextual factors of marriage and work were influential in predicting fathering in both dual- and single-earner households. There was no indication that the determinants differentially predicted fathering across the 3-month and 9-month measurement occasions. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of demonstrating empirically that the prediction of fathering may differ as a function of family context or developmental period.
Three aspects of the burgeoning literature on parental and nonparental child care pertaining to socioemotional development during the infancy, preschool, and school-age years are reviewed. The first section deals with the determinants of parenting and considers factors and processes that influence parental behavior and parent-child interaction—specifically, child characteristics, parent characteristics, marital relations, and social support. Second, correlational research linking parent-child interaction and child development is examined, with the focus first upon emotional support, parental responsiveness, and attachment security during the first years of life, then upon the cooperation and compliance during the toddler and preschool years, and finally upon the interrelation of relationships, especially linkages between parent-child and peer relationships. Finally, six waves of research on the effects of nonparental child care are outlined, along with directions for future research. A concluding section highlights points of convergence across these three areas of inquiry.
This study examines determinants of the home environments employed mothers provide for their young children, and investigates the impact of current employment experiences, current family conditions, and maternal and child characteristics in shaping children's home environments. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's 1986 Mother-Child Supplement, the study focuses on 795 employed mothers with a child aged three through six years old. As work socialization theories suggest, the occupational complexity of mother's work positively affects the home environments mothers provide for their children. In addition, larger family size produces less optimal child environments. The personal resources that mothers bring to their childrearing—self-esteem, locus of control, educational attainment, and age—also have significant effects on children's home environments. Given the importance of home environment for children's cognitive and socioemotional development, these findings suggest pathways by which maternal resources and current occupational and family environments have intergenerational repercussions.
This paper examines the impact of age of mother on patterns of caretaking, separations of mother and child, emotional and verbal responsivity of the mother to her child, opportunities for daily stimulation of the child, and patterns of discipline. In a sample of black and Hispanic women there was no independent effect of the age of mother on these dimensions of interaction. Rather, the factor found most consistently related to these measures was the number of months the mother had been on welfare since her child was born.
Using detailed time diaries of a 1981 national sample of 226 married couples with children, we analyze the extent of the trade-off
between their time commitments to work and time with their children. Parents in single-earner families spend substantially
more time with children than their dual-earner counterparts; the overall difference is largely accounted for by the lesser
time of employed mothers in activities that involve children only peripherally, not in directly child-oriented activities.
Dual-earner couples have lesser parental time with children for the simple fact that they work more as a unit than single-earner
couples. Although the widespread employment of women has not led to a more directly participative male parental role, work
time affects fathers' time with children more than mothers'.
In this paper, we analyze the marital role division between 1,212 couples taken from a probability sample of the Philadelphia urbanized area. We concentrate on the division of household tasks, of child care, and of paid employment. Using log linear techniques, we examine the effects of a variety of variables measuring social networks and the relative status of husband and wife. Data show support for a marital power model with husband's income negatively related to shared roles and with wife's education positively related to shared roles. Black couples are more likely to share household tasks than white couples.
Using the cultural and human ecology models as a guide, we assessed the associations between fathers' age, family income, length of time married, educational level, dimensions of fathers' functional style within the family, social support, and fathers' involvement in basic caregiving of their preschool-age child in intact middle to lower middle income African-American families. The data revealed that fathers spend about a third as much time as their wives in primary caregiving, and fathers' educational level, family income, communication, extrafamilial support, and length of time married were the chief variables associated with different dimensions of men's involvement with children. The data are discussed with respect to the primacy of specific factors in considering the father's role in African-American families.
Using time-diary data collected from a statewide probability sample of California children aged 3-11, we examine the amount of time children spend on four activities presumed to affect their cognitive and social development - reading or being read to, watching TV, studying, and doing household chores - and how that time varies by four family characteristics: parental education, maternal employment, number of parents in the household, and family size. As expected, children of highly educated parents study and read more and watch TV less. Contrary to expectations, children of mothers who are employed part-time watch significantly less TV than children of mothers at home full-time. Otherwise, there are few significant differences by mother's extent of paid employment, the presence of a father, and the number of siblings. Thus, the results reinforce the thesis that parental education is the predominant predictor of the human and social capital investments that children receive.
Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we investigate how fathers spend time with their children, what encourages them to no this, and the effects of fathers' time on children's academic achievement. We pay particular attention to the type of family structure that resident fathers and children share, and we find this to have an influence on both the activities that fathers engage in with their children and on children's grades. Both family structure and shared activities between fathers and their children are associated with children's academic achievement, but father's time does not appear to mediate the effects of family structure on children's grades.
Throughout the 1990s fathers across Western Europe were increasingly enabled to spend paternal time, following changes to national legislation regarding access to leave. We create a father-friendly policy index to construct a typology of governmental leave provisions specifically available to fathers by 1996-1997. We then analyze the time spent caring for children by fathers in Western Europe in 1996 and 2001, using the European Community Household Panel survey. We find that the time fathers spend caring for children, and gender inequalities in time caring for children, vary considerably by country. The policy index is correlated with both absolute and relative levels of fathers' time spent caring for children.
According to the 1988 National Health Interview Child Health Supplement, half of all children under age six attended nonparental child care on a regular basis. Close to a quarter of all children spent 40 or more hours per week in care. Average time in care was 30.5 hours for children in care. Statistical tests indicate that (a) the predictors of whether parents use any child care differ from the predictors of the number of hours care is used, and (b) estimates for children under three years of age differ from estimates for children from three to five years of age. The probability of attending care is related to a child's age, mother's education, race, family type, number and age of siblings, type of adults living in the household, income, poverty status, and region and size of the community in which a family resides. For children from three to five years of age, hours in care are associated with child's age, mother's education, race, family type, siblings, income, poverty status, and region. For children under three years of age, relatively few factors (mother's education, race, siblings, and region) predict the number of hours spent in child care.
Based on data from the 1992 Canadian General Social Survey on time-use, the time spent in housework and in child care are analysed for women and men who are working full-time in dual-earner families. Time demands of the family and time availability are found to be important determinants of time spent in child care for both men and women. However, the relative resources of partners are found to have less predictive power, except that women spend less time in housework if they earn more than half of the family income. There were also important elements of gender asymmetry in the results. In particular, women's time in housework is increased when their husbands spend more time in paid work, but men's time in housework is not significantly affected by the employment time of their wives. /// Nous analysons le temps employé, par les femmes et hommes travaillant à plein temps, pour les travaux domestiques et l'entretien des enfants, à base de données de l'Enquête sociale générale 1992. Les contraintes familiales et le temps disponible sont des déterminants importants du temps passé à l'entretien des enfants, pour hommes et femmes. Par ailleurs, les ressources relatives ont moins d'impact, sauf que les femmes font moins de travail domestique si elles apportent plus que la moitié du revenu familial. Il y a aussi des différences importantes par sexe; en particulier, le temps des femmes en travail domestique augmente quand leur mari passe plus de temps en travail payé, mais le temps domestique des hommes n'a pas une relations significative avec le temps payé de leur épouse.
It is an important aim in Norwegian work-family policy to enhance fathers’ family role, and some argue that we now have a father-friendly welfare state. Norwegian time-use surveys show an increase in fathers’ family-work, but we know little about the factors influencing fathers’ domestic labour. In this article we ask whether fathers increase their housework and childcare in response to mothers’ employment. Using the latest Norwegian time-use survey, we find a non-linear relationship between the mother’s working hours and the couple’s non-overlapping working hours on the one hand, and the mother’s working hours and the father’s family-work on the other.The father makes up for the mother’s absence only when she works short hours and only for certain chores. Full-time employment for the mother does not increase the father’s contribution in any types of family-work. This suggests that dual-earner parents rely mostly on external childcare to substitute for the mother’s absence.
By situating men within the country and time period in which they live, social scientists are better able to understand men's housework and child care behaviors. The author proposes that national context, conceptualized here as women's employment practices and policies, influences men's unpaid work behaviors by shaping the benefits of specialization, the terms of bargaining, and the ease of adhering to gender ideologies and norms. Using 44 time-use surveys from 20 countries (spanning 1965 to 2003) combined with original national-level data, the author utilizes multilevel models to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between national context and men's unpaid work behaviors. She finds that men's unpaid work time increases with national levels of women's employment. Furthermore, the effect of children on men's unpaid work time depends on women's national employment hours, the length of available parental leave, and men's eligibility to take parental leave, which indicates that particular public policies affect men in specific household situations. The analyses document the importance of national context for the unpaid work behaviors of all men, especially fathers, and shift the research focus from the attributes of individual men to the structures that hinder and facilitate men's unpaid work.