Fathering: Paradoxes, Contradictions and Dilemmas

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Fathering Paradoxes, Contradictions and
Dilemmas

• 2nd Annual Journalism
• Work/Family Conference
• Brandeis University, Boston, MA
• May 2-3, 2003

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Contradictory Images of Fathers

• Nurturing Fathers/Deadbeat Dads
• Good Providers/Redundant Workers
• Families Valued/Careers Privileged
• Physically Present/Emotionally Absent

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Hook 1 Housework Sex
Men who do more housework and child care have
better sex lives and happier marriages.
Women find a mans willingness to do housework
extremely erotic. - John Gottman, Why
Marriages Succeed or Fail The Seven Principles
for Making Marriage Work
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Hook 2 Housework Good Kids

• If fathers do housework with children, kids have
  lower risk of
• Unhappiness, Depression, Withdrawal
• Disobedience at School
• Poor Peer Relations/Delinquent Friends
• If fathers do housework, kids are likely to
• Be Happy and Self-reliant
• Have more Friends and be Well-liked
• Source Coltrane Adams, 2003, PSID Child
  Development Time Use Data, n710 2-parent
  families, Statistical Significance pp

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What is Father Involvement?

• Child Care
• Domestic Labor
• Provisioning

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• Child Care
• Engagement or Interaction
• Availability or Accessibility
• Responsibility (Lamb, Pleck, Charnov, Levine,
  1987)
• 2. Domestic Labor
• Routine Housework
• Other Household Labor
• 3. Provisioning
• Income Provider Role
• Resource allocation
• Child Support

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Conceptual Measurement Issues

• Should parenting activities be measured
  differently for mothers and fathers?
• How are different aspects of parental
  involvement related to each other?
• How should we measure positive versus negative
  father involvement?

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Major Findings

• How much change has occurred?
• Moderate increase in mens total time spent
  in child care, small increase in housework
• Larger increase in mens proportionate
  contribution to child care and housework
• Large decrease in mens proportionate
  contribution to job time family income
• Key women are changing faster than men

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Patterns of Change

• Gender Marital Status
• When men marry, they do less
• When women marry, they do more
• Gender of Child
• Men spend more time with sons
• Families rely on daughters for domestic work
• Education, Ethnicity, Family Type
• More education correlated with more sharing
• Mixed patterns by race/ethnicity family type

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Fatherhood Child Development

• Main Focus Family Structure or Father Absence
• Intact two-parent married couples with only
  birth children compared to residual category of
  single-parents, grandparents, foster parents,
  stepparents, cohabiting parents, gay parents, no
  parents, etc.
• Secondary Focus Provider Role
• Children growing up with fathers who earn above
  poverty-level wages or have non-resident fathers
  who provide child support payments fare better.

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• Need Focus on What Fathers Do
• Simple presence/absence confused with
• social and economic conditions
• Father behaviors rarely studied as much
• as mother behaviors
• Impact of fathers can be large because of
• variation in fathers behaviors (vs. mothers)

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Research on Fathers Limited

• Most findings based on
• White middle-class families
• Survey research, social desirability, volunteer
  bias
• Cross-sectional correlational studies
• Single research focus
• Parenting practices
• Household labor
• Child care arrangements
• Family structure
• Earnings and work-family relations

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Predicting Father Involvement

• Fathers are more involved when
• Wives employed more hours
• Fathers employed fewer hours
• Wives earn more money (inconsistent)
• Parents have more education
• Parents believe family work should be shared
• Fewer or older children
• Family is child-centered
• Couple relationship quality is high
• Cohabit, later parenthood, remarriage

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Future Prospects

• Trends in Causal Forces
• Information/Service Economy Globalization ?
• Womens Earnings ?
• Dual-Earner Households ?
• Educational Attainment ?
• Later Marriage and Birth ?
• Belief in Gender Equity ?
• Fewer Children ?
• Longevity ?
• Race/Ethnic Diversity ?
• Divorce Rate ?
• Cohabitation Rate ? Marriage Rate ? (90)

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Women, Work Marriage

• Womens Increasing Opportunities to
• Own Property
• Get an Education
• Get Jobs and Pursue Careers
• Earn a Living Wage
• Control their Sexuality and Reproduction
• End Violent or Unhealthy Relationships
• Raise Children Outside of Marriage
• Not be Dependent on a Father or Husband
• Fatherhood is more tenuous and fragile

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Trends Future Prospects

• Multiple Pathways to Father Involvement
• Partnership Model The New Normal
• Male Provider/Female Housewife Model
• Soft Patriarch Model (Promise Keepers)
• Split Household Model (Divorce/Custody)
• Policy Issue From Welfare to Marriage Promotion