Fathering over Time: What Makes the Difference?

Author(s): Joan Aldous, Gail M. Mulligan and Thoroddur Bjarnason

Source: Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 60, No. 4 (Nov., 1998), pp. 809-820
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/353626
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 JOAN ALDOUS, GAIL M. MULLIGAN, AND THORODDUR BJARNASON
University of Notre Dame

Fathering over Time: What Makes the Difference?

This article examines how much fathers partici-
pate in child care, an important component of do-
mestic duties, and factors related to it. It has the
advantage of longitudinal data, so that it is possi-
ble 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 divi-
sion of domestic labor, and the mothers' child-
care hours. The labor-force variables are the hus-
bands' 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.
Department of Sociology, 325 O'Shaughnessy, University of
Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (joan.aldous. @nd.edu).
Key Words: child care, childrearing, fathering, parenting, pa-
ternal involvement.
One of the continuing, contentious issues in the
research on families has been the division of
household labor. Early studies (Blood & Wolfe,
1960) showed that wives performed the majority
of domestic tasks, presumably including child care.
Since these reports, an increasing proportion of
women have entered the paid labor force, thereby
adding breadwinning to their housekeeping and
child-care responsibilities. Despite this change,
there is little evidence that men are doing more
around the house to compensate for their wives
holding jobs, as well as taking care of domestic
responsibilities (Hochschild, 1989). Men's house-
hold participation would make for more of a bal-
ance in the family's division of labor. Critics of this
argument note that husbands may do less around
the house than their job-holding wives, but they
tend to have longer hours on the job (Perry-Jenkins
& Folk, 1994; Pleck, 1985). Thus, many men have
less time off the job to devote to domestic tasks
than do their employed wives. Although some re-
cent studies have shown that the gender gap in
family housework is diminishing (e.g., Pittman,
Solheim, & Blanchard, 1996), research indicates a
continuing discrepancy in the performance of do-
mestic tasks, even when both spouses are employed
full-time (Barett & Shen, 1997; Wright, 1997; see
also, Pleck, 1997, p. 85).
This research is devoted to looking at the less-
explored topic of men's activities as fathers. The
research has the advantage of longitudinal data so
that the seldom studied issue of factors related to
continuities or discontinuities in fathering can be
examined. In addition, these data avoid the possi-
ble confounding of the age of the child and the age
cohort of fathers. Different ages of respondents

Journal of Marriage and the Family 60 (November 1998): 809-820 809

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810 Journal of Marriage and the Family

who have different parenting expectations due to nally assigning to each spouse tasks that he or she
the historical era in which they grew up and the does best with the least amount of time investment

different ages of their children make this a possible (Becker, 1981). Fathers tend to be more involved
problem in cross-sectional studies (Parke, 1995, in market labor and so have less time available to

p. 43). Because there has been some research that
suggests housework and child care may have dif-
ferent antecedents (Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992),
this study concerns specific factors related to fa-
thers who look after their children. The focus is on
variations in the extent of fathers' child-care activ-
ities and what seems to be related to these activities.
RELEVANT THEORY
perform domestic work. For practical reasons, the
person with the most free time, measured as time
not spent in paid labor, will do the most household
work. Husbands who work less than their wives
outside the home, therefore, should perform a
greater percentage of the housework and child
care than their wives. Time availability is also
measured by the familial demands on the couple's
time. The supposition is that parents perform
more child-care duties when there is more need

Despite a growing body of literature on factors that for them. Younger children and more children are
influence fathers' involvement in the lives of their expected to exert greater demands (Ishii-Kuntz &
children, psychologist, Ross D. Parke (1996) Coltrane, 1992).
writes, "Surprisingly, we know much more about Human-capital theory also posits that the rela-
what fathers do than why they do it" (p. 76). Muchtive resources that spouses contribute to the family
research typically has treated child care as simply aaffect the household division of labor. The spouse
component of general household labor and has who contributes more economic resources from
work outside the home will do fewer domestic
contained analyses of it as such (Coverman, 1985;
tasks. This household division of labor can be the
Nakhaie, 1995; Ross, 1987). Yet studies that have
examined separately the antecedents of participa- result of a rational decision made by the couple to
tion in housework and child care suggest that, al- devote time and attention to the things they do
though housework and child care are interrelated, best or a decision based on the relative power of
the set of factors predicting the performance ofeach partner (Deutsch et al., 1993; Nakhaie, 1995).
each is unique (Deutsch, Lussier, & Servis, 1993). In either instance, it is assumed that the spouse,
Observed differences in determinants may be due usually the husband, with greater resources, mea-
to the fact that, although both housework and child sured in terms of income, occupational prestige,
care are generally perceived as unwanted, onerous,and education, will have greater power to avoid
and undervalued tasks that women perform (Col-doing household and child-care tasks (Coltrane &
trane, 1996; Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992; Peter-Ishii-Kuntz, 1992). Arguing that the division of
son & Gerson, 1992), there exist some crucial dis-responsibility is determined by resource tradeoffs,
tinctions between the two. Repetitive householdhuman-capital theory predicts that when the wife
tasks such as cooking and cleaning may be more devotes more time to paid labor, earns more
unpleasant, but the costs of neglecting child caremoney, and increases her resources relative to her
are different than the costs of neglecting household husband, she gains more power to negotiate a
tasks. The rewards of taking care of one's children,more equitable division of domestic tasks. Simi-
such as increased closeness, are also greater than larly, when the husband is employed fewer hours
the rewards of taking out the garbage (Coverman and earns less than his wife, he has less power to
& Sheley, 1986). Researchers have used several ex- avoid tasks and, therefore, performs more house-
planations to account for the division of labor hold duties. In both instances, it is more efficient in
within the home, regardless of whether child careterms of household utility for men to increase their
has been treated as distinct from other household involvement in domestic work.

duties. These explanations include human-capital Gender-ideology theory assumes that gender
theory with its two perspectives of the comparative norms influence people's beliefs about the appro-
availability of parents' time and the relative re-priateness of certain tasks for women and men.
sources of the parents, an explanation based on They assign duties to each other according to these
gender ideologies, and one drawn from family sys-beliefs, rather than according to the utility of the
tems theory (Aldous, 1996; Becker, 1981; Coltrane,division of tasks or the comparative resources of the
1996; Deutsch et al., 1993). partners (Coltrane, 1996). Fathers have been seen
Human-capital theory proposes that couples as the family breadwinners who remain aloof from
maximize household utility or efficiency by ratio-domestic chores (Bernard, 1981). For men, work

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Fathering over Time
on the job and ambition to get ahead are central to
their self-images (Hochschild, 1997). In contrast,
household tasks and child care traditionally have
been women's work, even when, as in the case of
lower-class and farm wives, they also were earning
money for their families.
Men's participation in domestic tasks will in-
crease, according to gender-ideology theory, only
when their beliefs and, to a lesser extent (given
their lower status in the gender hierarchy), those
of their wives make this legitimate. The theory
posits that ideological factors will override time
constraints, and the wife will continue to do most
of the traditionally female domestic labor. Hus-
bands' perceptions of the fairness of the division
of domestic labor also affect their child-care par-
ticipation. Recent analyses of time-use diaries in-
dicate that although inequalities in the performance
of household chores are diminishing, women con-
tinue to do approximately 80% of child care (Robin-
son & Godbey, 1997). Gender norms with respect
to the comparative ability of parents to teach their
offspring sex-linked behaviors also may affect pa-
ternal involvement. According to these norms, fa-
thers' participation in child care should be higher
with sons than with daughters (Harris & Morgan,
1991).
Family-systems theory states that family sub-
systems are interrelated. What occurs within the
marital subsystem has an important impact on the
parent-child subsystem (Aldous, 1996; Belsky,
Youngblade, & Rovine, 1991; Cowan & Cowan,
1987). Emotional interactions with a spouse affect
the partner's state of mind and the desire to remain
involved in the family system. These, in turn, can
influence interactions with children. When spouses
interact in positive ways, they become more re-
sponsive to their children (Belsky & Volling, 1987).
Conversely, emotional negativity between spouses
is associated with dysfunctional parenting (Cum-
mings & Davies, 1994). Generally, men seem less
able than women to separate feelings generated
by the marital relationship from those pertaining
to relationships with their children (Belsky et al.,
1991). Decreased parental involvement and emo-
tional availability can result when parents are pre-
occupied with their own marital discord. During
times of conflict, men tend to distance themselves
from the marital subsystem (Gottman, 1994),
which can lead to their withdrawal from the parent-
child subsystem. Fathers who are unhappy in their
marriages are less likely to be involved in the
lives of their children.
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811
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Research lends support to human-capital theory.
Husbands generally perform fewer household tasks
and less child care than their wives, regardless of
the number of paid hours of labor the husbands or
wives work (Barnett & Shen, 1997; Greenstein,
1996; Nock & Kingston, 1988). Contradictions
arise when the factors that influence husbands to
take a greater part in household duties and child
care are examined. One review of relevant studies
showed that fathers' hours on the job are not re-
lated to their participation in child care (Pleck,
1997, p. 91). It appears that only the wife's paid
work hours significantly affect the husband's par-
ticipation in domestic labor when child care is in-
cluded (Blair & Johnson, 1992; Ross, 1987). Her
hours seem to be the most important predictor for
families with young children (Deutsch et al.,
1993). The more hours she is employed, the more
he is involved in household tasks. Other research
finds that when both spouses work outside the
home, the husband's performance of regular house-
hold duties and child care is affected (Cowan &
Cowan, 1987; Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992). Hus-
bands do more at home when wives put in more
hours on the job and when husbands work fewer
hours.
There are also studies stemming from time-
availability theory concerning how the extra de-
mands that more children and younger children
place on parents affect fathers' household work.
These studies show that the more children a father
has, the more time he spends in child care, but the
less time he devotes to each individual child
(Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane 1992; Nock & Kingston,
1988). The findings on children's ages and fathers'
involvement are inconsistent. Some studies indi-
cate that fathers spend more time with older chil-
dren (Ishii-Kuntz & Coltrane, 1992). Other studies
find no significant effects of child's age on paternal
involvement (Coverman & Sheley, 1986; Ross,
1987). Recent research indicates that, as children
grow older, both parents spend less time with them,
but fathers' involvement declines less. Thus, fathers'
relative time with older children, compared with
mothers' time, increases because of fathers' lower
initial baseline of care (Pleck, 1997, p. 76).
Some research shows, as suggested by relative-
resource theory, that there is a more equitable di-
vision of household tasks, including child care,
when wives are more educated and contribute
more to the family income (Ross, 1987). However,
these factors seem to have no significant effect on
812 Journal of Marriage and the Family

the husband's involvement with his children when HYPOTHESES

the antecedents of child care, alone, are examined
(Deutsch et al., 1993). Based on human-capital theory, we hypothesize
that husbands will participate more actively in
The finding that the more traditional a couple's
child care when their wives' hours of paid em-
gender ideology, the less equitable the division of
ployment increase and when the proportion of the
household labor supports gender-ideology theory.
family income that wives contribute goes up.
Traditional spouses are more likely to perceive the
usual division of household labor as fair. Research Conversely, the more hours that husbands spend
on the job and the more that they contribute pro-
also indicates that wives' gender ideologies have
portionately to the family income, the less involved
little effect on husbands' participation in the lives
they will be in child care. Due to the time demands
of their children (Deutsch et al., 1993). A more
of children, especially younger ones, we hypothe-
equal division of household labor appears to de-
size that the more children a couple has and the
pend on men's decisions to participate more (Ross,
younger the children are, the more time husbands
1987). This is consistent with their more powerful
will spend in child care.
position in the gender hierarchy. Also, it appears
Our hypothesis that the more husbands sub-
that greater involvement in one domain of family
scribe to an ideology of egalitarian gender roles,
care leads to increased participation in all aspects
the more active they will be in child care comes
of family care. Men who do more household chores
are more involved in the lives of their children
from gender-roles ideology theory. Husbands'
perceptions of how fair the division of child-care
(Volling & Belsky, 1991). A few studies also sug-
labor is, will also be related to child care. They will
gest that fathers tend to spend more time with sons
do more child-care tasks, if they perceive that the
than with daughters (Dickie, 1987; Harris & Mor-
division is unfair to wives. Furthermore, we hy-
gan, 1991). Available research indicates that men
pothesize that if fathers are active in doing house-
with nontraditional gender-role ideologies are more
hold tasks, they will be more involved in fathering.
likely to perceive that the division of household
Also, the more fathers participate in child care
labor is unfair (Greenstein, 1996). This finding sug-
when children are preschoolers, the more they
gests that such men participate more in child care.
will participate when children are of school age.
The quality of the marriage also is related to fa-
Finally, family-systems theory suggests that hus-
thers' participation in housework and their care of
bands will be more involved in taking care of their
infants. Studies indicate that marital satisfaction
children if the quality of their marriages is good.
has a positive influence on father-infant involve-
ment (Belsky & Volling, 1987; Parke, 1996).
DATA AND MEASURES
However, a study of adolescents found a positive
relation only between marital satisfaction reported
Our research uses panel data collected in the two
by wives and their husbands' involvement with
waves of the National Survey of Families and
these children. The fathers' reports were not re- Households in 1987-1988 and 1992-1993 (Sweet,
lated (Harris & Morgan, 1991). Bumpass, & Call, 1988). In the first wave, a main
Some of this contradictory evidence may be at- respondent, aged 19 or older, was randomly se-
tributable to differences in the ages of the childrenlected from each household in the study for an in-
in each study. The way that fathers' involvementterview, during which he or she also completed a
was measured-generally (as in asking how many
supplementary questionnaire. The respondent's
hours per week the father spends with the child in
spouse was administered a self-enumerated ques-
any activity) or more specifically (for instance,
tionnaire. Procedures were changed slightly for the
how often the father reads to or plays games withsecond wave so that both husband and wife par-
his child)-may also be a factor. Multicollinearityticipated in separate, but identical, interviews and
of some of the measures of domestic tasks also
completed separate, but identical, questionnaires.
can affect the results. Research with large, repre-
In each household, a child was randomly selected
sentative samples to determine how factors affect-as the focal child. In the first wave, the main re-
ing fathers' involvement with children change spondent was asked a set of questions specifically
across time will help to answer the questions about the focal child. In the second wave, both re-
raised by previous studies. This study attempts tospondents were asked identical questions about
meet this need.
this child. The longitudinal data allow for tracking
the child's development, as well as for changes in
the respondent's involvement with the child.

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Fathering over Time 813

For our purposes, we chose a subsample from focal child. However, t tests showed that the dif-
all households that participated in both waves (n = ference between the time spent by fathers that
10,008) that met the following criteria: The cou- mothers reported and fathers' self-reported time is
ple was married in the first and second waves, and not statistically significant. Comparative t tests in-
the couple had a focal child aged 4 years or dicated that the difference between the mothers'
younger in the first wave. Continuously married self-reported time spent with the focal child and
couples constituted the sample, making it possible the mothers' time reported by the fathers is statis-
to see how partners' involvement in child care
tically significant. Fathers reported that mothers
within families changed over time. The children's
spend more time than mothers did. Thus, in fami-
ages initially were within the preschool range in
lies where fathers reported on parental child care,
order to determine fathers' involvement with there may be a bias toward mothers' greater par-
ticipation. In the second wave, each spouse was
preschoolers before they began formal education.
Due to the relatively small number of Blacks, asked: "Last week, how many hours did you spend
Hispanics, and other racial or ethnic minoritieswith [focal child], just the two of you, for example
that met the criteria listed above (n = 73), ourworking on homework or a project, in leisure ac-
sample consists of couples in which both spousestivities, or just having private talks?" Because the
are White. It includes couples for whom the nature
race of parents' child care differs according to the
of both spouses was reported as White, as well as age, the measures of parental involvement
child's
those for whom one spouse was reported as White are different across the two time points. The mea-
and the race of the other spouse was missing. sure at Time 1 includes tasks related to the care of
Comparing the White-White and White-missing preschool children, and the measure at Time 2 in-
couples, t tests showed that there were no signifi-
cludes tasks related to the care of school-aged
cant differences in spouses' incomes, levels of children.
ed- The difference in these measures allows
ucation, time spent with children, or wives' rela-
for the change in needed child-care tasks as chil-
tive incomes. After controlling for all factors, we grow older.
dren
obtained the final subsample of 762 couples and To supplement the content-free indicators of
their children. These selection criteria may create
involvement with some measure of the quality of
a sample bias because couples who are eligible in
fathers' and mothers' involvement with older chil-
the first wave but were dropped from the sample dren, we also included a question about how often,
due to divorce, loss of the focal child, or nonpar-
in the last 30 days, the father or mother talked to
ticipation in the second wave are generally the lessfocal child about things that were worrying
educated and have lower household incomes than the child. The coding of answers ranged from low
the couples retained for analysis. to high where 1 = never, 2 = once, 3 = two or three
The indicators available in the NSFH for the times, 4 = about once a week, 5 = several times a
tests of the hypotheses are the following. week, and 6 = almost every day.

Parental Involvement Time Availability

Both waves of data include measures of the amount Our measure of parents' employment is the num-
of time, overall, that each parent spends in activi- ber of hours each spouse worked for pay outside
ties with the focal child. In the first wave, main re- the home. The total number of children younger
spondents were asked: "About how many hours in than age 18 residing in the household, the age of
a typical day do you spend taking care of [focal the focal child, and the focal child's emotional
child's] physical needs, including feeding, bathing, problems were included as variables measuring
dressing, and putting him or her in bed?" This re- demands for child care placed on the respondents'
spondent also was asked to estimate the amount time. We constructed a measure of the focal
of time his or her spouse spent performing these child's emotional problems (alpha = .68) from
tasks. In the first wave, the NSFH administered mothers' responses to whether or not in the previ-
surveys to both spouses but interviewed only one ous 3 months her child had sudden changes in
of them. Thus, approximately one half of the mood or feeling, felt or complained that no one
main respondents are mothers, and one half are loved him or her, was too fearful or anxious, and
fathers. This can be problematic because not all felt worthless or inferior. Responses to each of the
fathers gave their own estimation of how much four individual items were coded on a 3-point
time they spent providing physical care for the scale from not true to often true. Our constructed

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814 Journal of Marriage and the Family

scale is the sum of responses to each of the items. lowing: "Mothers who work full-time when their
Therefore, our measure ranges from 0 (never true) youngest child is under age 5"; and "children
to a possible high of 12 (often true). We used the re- under 3 years old being cared for all day in a day
sponses of mothers instead of fathers. Mothers gen- care center." The first two items were coded from
erally spent more time with the children and, there- 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree) at Time
fore, would be more familiar with their problems. 1 and from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly dis-
agree) at Time 2. The last two items were coded
Relative Resources from 1 (strongly disapprove) to 5 (strongly approve)
at both times. Thus, our constructed scale at Time
We included the education of both spouses, mea-
1 ranges from 0 to 24 and at Time 2 ranges from 0
sured by the level of education completed at Time
to 20. Low scores reflect traditional ideologies, and
2. Education was only available for half of high
the scores indicate more egalitarian ideologies.
spouses in the first wave. This is problematic be-
cause we essentially use data at Time 2 to predict
Perceptions of Fairness
effects at Time 1. However, examination of our
subsample data shows that only 8% of women The
and question, "How do you feel about the fairness
6% of men for whom education was known in in your relationship regarding child care?" was
Wave 1 obtained further education in the 5 years
asked of both spouses at Times 1 and 2. Answers
between Waves 1 and 2. Moreover, 50% of the ranged from 1 (very unfair to me) to 7 (very unfair
women and 33% of the men whose education lev- to him or her). Because most spouses (more than
els changed studied only 1 additional year during
97% for each question) answered that either the
those 5 years. Correlations of educational leveldivision of child care was fair to both or unfair in
for Waves 1 and 2 are .97 and .98 for women and some degree to the wife, we recoded this measure
men, respectively. to indicate the degree of unfairness to the wife.
The proportion of yearly household incomeRecoded scores ranged from 1 (very unfair to the
contributed by the wife serves as the indicator of
wife) to 3 (fair to both). The few who did respond
her financial contribution. This strategy avoids the
that the division of child care was unfair to the
complications and misleading results that can arisehusband (20 wives and 17 husbands at Time 1, 21
due to differences in earnings among social classes.
wives and 13 husbands at Time 2) were assigned
As Coltrane (1996) notes, upper-class, professionalscores of 3.
women typically are married to upper-class, profes-
sional men whose incomes and prestige still tend
Marital Satisfaction
to be higher than the incomes and prestige of their
wives. The same generally holds true for middle- Each spouse's response to the question-"Taking
class women. Working-class women may have the all things together, how would you describe your
lowest actual earnings in dollars, yet they contribute
relationship?"-provided this indicator. Answers
the greatest percentage of household income. This ranged from a score of 1 (very unhappy) to 7 (very
should give them, according to the relative resourcehappy).
hypothesis, greater influence in the division of
household labor.
Participation in Household Chores

Husbands and wives were asked to estimate the

Gender Role Ideology
amount of time per week that they spent doing par-
Both spouses replied to a series of questions per-ticular tasks around the house, including preparing
taining to gender role ideology in each wave ofmeals, washing dishes, cleaning the house, doing
the survey. We created a scaled measure that is thework outdoors, shopping, washing and ironing
sum of responses to four items. Respondents were clothes, paying bills, driving, and maintaining the
asked the extent to which they agreed or disagreedcar. The sum of hours for these tasks provided the
with the following statements: "It is much bettertotal number of self-reported hours that each
if the man earns the living and the woman takesspouse spent in household labor. Because there was
care of the home and family"; and "preschool a large amount of missing data for hours spent in
children are likely to suffer if their mother is em- housework at Time 1 (31% of fathers' self-reported
ployed." Respondents also were asked the extenthours, 41% of mothers' estimations of fathers'
to which they approved or disapproved of the fol-hours, 34% of mothers' self-reported hours, and

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Fathering over Time 815

34% of fathers' estimations of mothers' hours), theory, the more hours that fathers are employed,
we included only hours spent doing housework at the less fathering they do. Also, the more hours
Time 2 in the analysis. We replaced missing house- their wives are on the job, the more husbands are
work data for each spouse at Time 2 (13% for involved with their young children. The number
husbands and 9% for wives) with the means for of children in the household, which is negatively
self-reported hours spent completing household related to mothers' time spent caring for the focal
tasks. child, has an indirect, negative effect on fathers'
child-care activities. These findings suggest that
more children and their demands lead to mothers
METHOD OF ANALYSIS
and fathers dividing their attentions and paying
The data analysis uses simultaneous structural
equations with observed variables. (See Bollen TABLE 1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS RELATED TO FATHERS'
PARTICIPATION IN CHILD CARE
1989.) The nature of the data does not permit us to
model our key constructs as latent variables with E 3ackground Variables M SD Range
multiple observed indicators. Nevertheless, simul- F
;ather's education 14.1 2.6 6-20
taneous structural equations allow us to delineate /other's education 13.7 2.3 4-20
the complex interrelations of social context and]\A /ale child 0.5 - 0-1
fathering over time and to decompose the corre-P \ge of child (Time 2) 6.8 1.4 5-9
lates of fathering into direct and indirect effects.
Time 1
Indirect effects permit the researcher to determine 0.23 0-1
Mother's proportional income 0.24
if some variables influence the dependent variables Number of children 1.7 0.8 1-7
through other variables. The total effects, there- Mother's work hoursa 18.3 18.0 0-65

fore, are the sum of the direct and indirect effects. Father's work hoursa 43.7 12.5 0-65
Mother's physical careb
4.3 6.3
0-16
Father's physical careb 2.2 2.5 0-16
RESULTS Mother's gender role ideologyc 8.84.6 0-20
Father's gender role ideologyc 8.04.3 0-20
Mother's marital satisfaction 6.1 1.0 2-7
Fathers' Child Care at Time 1
Father's marital satisfaction 6.1 1.0 2-7
Mother's perceived fairness 2.6 0.5 1-3
Table 1 gives the means and standard deviations
Father's perceived fairness 2.7 0.5 1-3
of the study variables and shows that, consistent
Time 2
with prior research, fathers participate less in child
0.23 0-1
care than mothers do. At Time 1, when the focalMother's proportional income 0.24
Number of children 2.4 0.9 1-7
child was 4 years old or younger, fathers reported Mother's work hours 19.9 18.9 0-65
spending, on average, 2.3 hours a day taking careFather's work hours 44.4 14.1 0-65
of the child's physical needs. This compares withMother's time with child 6.0 6.0 0-50
Father's time with child 4.0 0-45 4.2
the 5.9 hours a day that mothers said they spent
Mother's hours in houseworkd 18.241.4 0-83
caring for the focal child (p < .001). However, Father's hours in houseworkd 19.3 9.6 0-42
mothers, on average, worked outside the homeMother's gender role ideologye 7.1 3.7 0-16
fewer than 20 hours per week, and fathers, on av-Father's gender role ideologye 6.7 3.3 0-16

erage, were on the job about 44 hours a week. But Mother's marital satisfaction 5.9 1.2 1-7
Father's marital satisfaction 5.8 1.2 1-3
even when the hours in child care of full-time,
Mother's perceived fairness 2.70.5 1-3
employed mothers and fathers (215 couples in all) Father's perceived fairness 2.7 0.5 1-5
were compared, mothers still were significantlyChild's emotional problemsf 5.9 1.7 4-12

(p < .001) more involved (4.9 hours per day) thanMother talks to child about
worries 3.5 1.3 1-6
were fathers (2.4 hours per day). Fathers also Father talks to child about
were more likely to be somewhat more traditional worries 4.0 1.2 1-6
in their gender ideologies than mothers. Age of
aWork hours truncated at 65 hours or m
parent did not affect the results, which suggests
bThese means are based on both self-rep
that there were no cohort effects.
and care hours reported by the main res
Table 2 shows the factors related to fathers' other parent. CFour-item scale, mothers
taking care of their young children. Some hypoth-thers' alpha = .80. dHousework hours tru
eses that are derived from human-capital theorymother's-83 hours or more per week; fa
or more per week. eFour-item scale, mot
are supported by the data. Consistent with the fathers' alpha = .79. fMothers' evaluation,
time-availability component of human-capitalalpha = .68.

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816 Journal of Marriage and the Family

TABLE 2. DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECTS ON FATHERING

Father's Physical Care Father Spends Time with Father Talks to Child about
of Child at Time 1 Child at Time 2 Worries at Time 2

Background Variables Direct Indirect Total Direct Indirect Total Direct Indirect Total
Father's education -.08** -.03** -.12*** - .03*** -.03*** .11** .00 .10**
Mother's education .02 .02 .01* .01*
Male child .02* .02* .00 .13*** .01* .12***
Age of child -.05*** -.05*** .03** .03**

Time 1
Mother's proportionate income -
Number of children -.06*** -.06*** - .15*** -.15** - -.07*** -.07***
Mother's work hours .11** -.02 .09** .03*** .03*** .01 .01
Father's work hours -.25*** - .25*** -.05*** -.05*** -.01* -.01*
Mother's gender ideology - -
Father's gender ideology .10** - .10** .02** .02**
Mother's physical care .21*** - .21** .02* .02* .01 .01
Father's physical care .08** .08** .01* .01*
Mother's marital happiness - -- -
Father's marital happiness - - --
Mother's perceived fairness - -- -
Father's perceived fairness - -- -

Time 2
Mother's proportionate income
Number of children -.19*** -.03** -.23*** -.09** -.02** -.***
Mother's work hours .01 .01
Father's work hours -.08** -.01 -09** - .01*-.01*
Mother's time with child .10 -* .10** .10.01** .01 *
Father's time with child .11** .11**
Mother's gender ideology
Father's gender ideology .02* .02*
Mother's marital happiness
Father's marital happiness
Mother's perceived fairness
Father's perceived fairness
Father's housework .15** - .15*** - .02* .02**
Child has emotional problems - .20** - .20***

.13 .12 .09

Note: Nonsignificant variables were removed from the equations.

*p <.05. **p <.01. ***p <.001.

such care. Thus, the relation of husbands' and

less attention to the focal children. Another finding
wives' child care is positive, not negative as time-
related to time availability is that fathers participate
less in the care of older preschoolers, who presum- availability theory suggests. And contrary to the
ably require less physical care than younger
relative-resource aspect of human-capital theory,
preschoolers. there is no significant relationship between moth-
Consistent with the relative-resource aspect of ers' proportional contributions to household in-
human-capital theory, the more educated fathers are, come and fathers' involvement in the care of their
the less time they spend taking care of the focal children. Furthermore, neither marital satisfaction
child's physical needs. As suggested by gender- nor perceptions of fairness regarding the division
ideology theory, ideology also plays a part in men's of child care affect fathers' time spent in child care.
fathering. The more egalitarian the father's atti-
tudes, the more time he spends caring for his pre- Fathers' Child Care at Time 2
schooler. Mothers' gender ideologies, however, are
unrelated to fathers' time spent in child care. Table 1 shows that at Time 2, when the focal child
Unexpectedly, we found that the more time the was between ages 5 and 9, the discrepancy be-
mother spends on the physical care of the focal tween fathers' and the mothers' involvement with
child, the more time the father also spends on older children who required less physical care is

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Fathering over Time 817

not as large as it was when the children were pre- that worried him or her over the last month indi-
schoolers. On average, fathers spent 4 hours a cate a break in the pattern of mothers doing more
week and mothers spent 6 hours a week engaged for children (Table 1). Fathers reported talking to
in joint activities with the focal child (p < .001). their children an average of once a week, and
Moreover, among the 249 couples in which both mothers reported doing so between two and four
spouses were employed full-time, mothers still times a month.
spent significantly (p < .001) more time (5.6 hours As might be expected, mothers' reports of the
per week) with the children than did fathers (3.8 focal child's emotional problems are the single
hours per week). strongest factor increasing the likelihood of fa-
Some findings at Time 2 are consistent with thers' talking to the child about his or her worries.
those at Time 1. Supporting human-capital theory In addition, there is a carry-over from the time the
with its time-availability argument, both father's father spends with the child in joint activities. The
work hours and the number of children competing more time they are together, the more time he
for his time are negatively related to his time spent spends listening to the child's worries. But the
in child care. However, as at Time 1, the propor- number of children that a father has decreases the
tional share of family income that wives con- amount of time he has for talking to the focal
tributed-an indicator of their relative resources-
child. More education seems to give fathers the
does not affect husbands' participation in child ability to deal with their children's worries, or the
care at Time 2. Also, the amount of time at Time 2better educated may be more aware of them. Fa-
that the mother spends alone with the focal child thers also spend more time talking to their sons
continues to positively affect the time that the fa-about things that are worrying them than they do
ther spends alone with the child. talking to their daughters. This finding is consistent
Contrary to findings at Time 1 and contrary to with the traditional belief that parents have a bet-
human-capital theory, the hours that wives are em- ter understanding of offspring of the same sex.
ployed outside the home at Time 2 bear little rela- The amount of time that the father spent taking
tion to men's fathering. Unlike results at Time 1, care of the physical needs of the child at Time 1
fathers spend significantly more time with sonsdoes not have a direct effect on talking about wor-
than with daughters, a finding supportive of tradi-ries at Time 2, and the indirect, albeit statistically
tional gender ideology, but fathers' scores on thesignificant, effect is substantively insignificant.
ideology measure are not related to the amount ofUnlike the findings regarding time spent with the
time that they spend with the focal child. Anotherfocal child, performing household tasks is not di-
finding specific to Time 2 is that men who do rectly related to fathers talking with these children
household chores also are active in fathering. Thus,about their worries. As with fathers' joint activities
child care appears to be related to men's generalwith children, no significant relationship appears
participation in housework. Mother's hours spentbetween mothers' proportional contributions to
doing housework have no effect on either her orhousehold income and fathers' conversations with
her husband's time spent alone with the focal child. the focal child about the child's worries. Further-
The advantage of having longitudinal data was more, the time fathers spent talking with the focal
that we were able to examine the continuity of fa-child is not related to the perception of fairness in
thering over time. Fathers who were more active in child care, perceived marital satisfaction, or the
child care at Time 1 did spend more time with their gender ideology of either spouse.
children 5 years later. Once men are involved in
looking after children, the pattern seems to con-
Test of the Factors Hypothesized
tinue over time, controlling for other factors.
to Be Related to Active Fathering

Children Talking about Worries at Time 2 With a chi-square of 163 and 131 degrees of free-
dom, the chi-square test indicates a borderline sta-
This measure of the father's attention to the focal tistical difference between the observed factors
child gets at a different aspect of child care, oneand the model's factors related to active fathering
tied to children's socioemotional expression, an implied in the covariance matrices (p = .03).
area in which men, in general, are seen as beingOther measures of fit, however, indicate a closer
less comfortable (Balswick, 1988; Rubin, 1985). fit of the model. The goodness-of-fit index is .98.
Contrary to this belief, at Time 2 the parents' re- The standardized root mean square residual,
ports of talking to the focal child about somethingwhich can be interpreted as the mean difference

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818 Journal of Marriage and the Family

between the actual correlation matrices and matri- The available data from this longitudinal
ces implied by the model (Bollen, 1989), is .03. The analysis of the NSFH explain somewhat more of
estimated root mean square error of approximation the variance in fathering for infants and preschool-
is well below the level of .05, indicative of a close ers than for children of school age. The reason may
fit (Browne & Cudeck, 1993). Thus, although the lie in the shift of child-care indicators. They change
analysis accounted for only a modest proportion over the years of the child's development from the
of the variance in fathers' child care at Time 1 active and demanding physical care involved in
(13%) and Time 2 (12%), the model adequately feeding, dressing, bathing, and looking out for the
accounts for the observed variance among the young child to participating with the child in ac-
variables under study. tivities like homework, sports, or discussions about
her or his worries.

DISCUSSION Our research does suggest why many men tend

to be uninvolved fathers. The comparative time
With the advantage of longitudinal data on childthat parents spend with younger children, as
care, it was possible to obtain some idea of howhuman-capital theory suggests, is influential. The
the marital division of child care fared over time. more hours that fathers were on the job, regardless
There is fathering information on children fromof the age of the child, the less parenting they did.
the ages of 4 years or younger and 5 years laterMoreover, the more hours a mother was employed
when the same children were 5-9 years old. Weoutside the home when children were preschool-
found, as have others using information on house-ers, the more physical care fathers provided. But
work, that fathers in two-parent families spend the father's work schedule took precedent over
less time in child care than do mothers (Barett the
& mother's, reflecting the differential gender
Shen, 1997; Hochschild, 1989). This held true, power in families to which the human-capital the-
whether the children were young enough to requireory points. However, unexplained by comparative
physical help or of school age when parenting took
time-resources theory is the finding that early par-
the form of activities in which the children were ticipation in child care led to fathers' continued
joint participants. During the latter period, wheninvolvement with these children, net of other fac-
children needed less physical care, this parentaltors, when they were older. Thus, it appeared that,
difference diminished. Fathers put in a little overonce involved in the care of young children, fathers
one third of the work that mothers did with pre-acquired a continuing taste for active childrearing.
schoolers, but their proportion of child care went Even subscribing to a more egalitarian gender
up to two thirds of the mothers' when the children role ideology characterized more active fathers
were older. Fathers generally were on the job only with young children. Fathers of older children
longer than mothers, but even when both parentsseemed to be able to support egalitarian gender
were employed full-time in paid work, mothersnorms and see unfairness in the parental division
continued to do more. of child care but still do little about it. However,
The one exception to the parental difference in the indicator of gender role ideology was a gen-
time spent doing child care was fathers talking with eral one and did not directly cover beliefs about
school-aged children about their worries. Fathers fathers performing child care. Thus, it is not sur-
did more of it. The traditional gender belief thatprising that mothers' scores on gender role ideology
men are uncomfortable dealing with their ownin both waves and fathers' scores at Wave 2 were
and others' feelings (Balswick, 1988; Rubin, 1985) not related to men's fathering.
did not appear to hold here. However, fathers' The longitudinal data indicated continuities
self-reports may reflect the traditional father role over time in fathers' child-care practices. The less
of being the final authority with respect to settling frequently that fathers cared for their infants or
children's problems (Shulman & Seiffge-Krenke, young children, the less they were involved with
1997). Mothers may encourage children to talk to those children 5 years later. Understandably, the
their fathers about problems, and fathers may en- more children that couples had, the less time they
courage such conversations. Moreover, there was had to devote to a particular child.
little evidence that husbands, even though they However, some of the hypotheses about factors
recognized the unfairness of the division of child related to fathering were not supported. Mothers'
care, were prepared to make the effort needed to contributions to family income did not affect fa-
balance the load. thers' child-care participation. Mothers' compara-
tive earnings, whether more or less, made little

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Fathering over Time 819

difference. Because the women in the sample parenting that continues for older daughters and
generally were not full-time workers outside the older sons, alike. And fathers who complete more
home, they had relatively low earnings. Their com- of the household tasks are also more active with
parative financial resources and the job demands their children. This suggests that men involved in
they could use to press for husbands' greater par- one area of domestic work are more likely to be
ticipation in child care, as human-capital theory involved in other areas as well.
argues, were restricted. But even when both par- Most of the variance in fathers' participation
ents held full-time jobs, wives still performed sig- in child care remains undetermined, perhaps due
nificantly more child care. Husbands' personal to inadequate indicators or to their absence. How-
sentiments of marital satisfaction and husbands' ever, this study does indicate some factors that en-
courage fathers to be more active parents. In con-
or wives' perceptions of the fairness of the division
of child care also were not related to the extent that trast to men who are less involved, men who
men fathered. These results are consistent with tra- actively fulfill child-care tasks over time begin
ditional gender roles (Gerson, 1993; Thome, 1992; with positive attitudes toward women's roles out-
Williams, 1988). Men, as this research and otherside the family. When their wives are involved in
studies indicate, generally are less involved in thepaid work, such men are more likely to help bal-
daily round of family duties. Moreover, they gen-ance their wives' home and job commitments
erally are not expected to be (Hochschild, 1989).through active fathering. These involved fathers
As a result, neither their marital satisfaction noralso are not spending excessive hours on the job.
that of their wives were related to the extent of fa- Once they get involved in child care, they are
thers' participation in child care. This was also likely to continue to be active fathers.
true of partners' perceptions of the fairness of the On the basis of this study's findings, it seems
division of child care, an indicator skewed in the reasonable to conclude that men who are less in-
direction of unfairness to women. volved in child care are engrossed in their jobs
There were findings concerning fathers' par- and spend long hours at the workplace, do not
ticipation in childrearing that our hypotheses did begin child care with young children, and have
not predict. The one that stands out concerns the wives who are less involved in mothering. Finally,
interdependence of couples' parenting. It appears fathers with older preschool children or with
that the more attention a child received from one daughters tend to spend less time with them. This
parent, the more she or he received from the other.latter finding indicates a biological element related
Even though how satisfied couples are in theirto child care whose influence is affected by the
marriages does not affect fathers' active parenting,social meaning of fathering. Thus, the study sug-
there is interdependence in the amount of childgests that to be an active father, it takes men with
care each parent gives. Thus, children who enjoy particular beliefs and job commitments to venture
the attention of one parent are likely to benefit into this new territory of family organization.
from the other's care also. And when one parent is
less involved in child care, the other is not likely NOTE
to make up the difference. This finding casts doubt
on the belief that women generally are loathe to This is a revision of a paper that was presented at the
34th Seminar of the Committee on Family Research of
share domestic duties with their partners because
the International Sociological Association on May 19,
performing them is the major source of whatever1997, at the Ma'ale Hachamisha kibbutz, Israel.
power they possess (Parke, 1996). Fathers who do
little with their children also have wives who are
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