Children's Time With Fathers in Intact Families

This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine children's involvement with their fathers in intact families as measured through time spent together. Our findings suggest that although mothers still shoulder the lion's share of the parenting, fathers' involvement relative to that of mothers appears to be on the increase. A “new father” role is emerging on weekends in intact families. Different determinants of fathers' involvement were found on weekdays and on weekends. Fathers' wages and work hours have a negative relationship with the time they spend with a child on weekdays, but not on weekends. Mothers' work hours have no effect on children's time with fathers. On weekends, Black fathers were found to be less involved and Latino fathers more involved with their children than are White fathers. The weekday-weekend differential suggests that a simple gender inequality theory is not sufficient in explaining the dynamics of household division of labor in today's American families.

[1]  S. Coverman.  EXPLAINING HUSBANDS' PARTICIPATION IN DOMESTIC LABOR , 1985 .

[2]  Malcolm Hill,et al.  The Panel Study of Income Dynamics , 1991 .

[3]  A. E. Gottfried,et al.  Role of Maternal and Dual-Earner Employment Status in Children’s Development , 1994 .

[4]  R. Parke,et al.  Grandparents as Interactive and Social Support Agents for Families with Young Infants , 1987, International journal of aging & human development.

[5]  L. Waite,et al.  New Families, No Families? , 1991 .

[6]  K. Harris,et al.  Poverty, Paternal Involvement, and Adolescent Well-Being , 1996 .

[7]  M. Ahmeduzzaman.  Sociodemographic Factors, Functioning Style, Social Support, and Fathers' Involvement with Preschoolers in African-American Families. , 1992 .

[8]  F. Furstenberg.  Good dads-bad dads: Two faces of fatherhood. , 1988 .

[9]  F. Stafford,et al.  The Allocation of Time: Empirical Findings, Behavioral Models, and Problems of Measurement , 1991 .

[10]  Solomon W. Polachek,et al.  Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women , 1974, Journal of Political Economy.

[11]  A. Acock,et al.  Family diversity and well-being , 1995 .

[12]  J. L. Roopnarine,et al.  Puerto Rican Fathers' Involvement with Their Preschool-Age Children , 1993 .

[13]  R. Barnett,et al.  Determinants of fathers' participation in family work. , 1987 .

[14]  S. Nock,et al.  Time with children: the impact of couples work-time commitments. , 1988 .

[15]  G. Duncan,et al.  Putting Fathers Back in the Picture , 2000 .

[16]  Greg J. Duncan,et al.  The Use of Time and Technology by Households in the United States. , 1977 .

[17]  Robert A. Pollak,et al.  Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage , 1996 .

[18]  N. Radin,et al.  Paternal involvement, maternal employment, and adolescents' academic achievement: an 11-year follow-up. , 1993, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[19]  Susan M. McHale,et al.  The three corners of domestic labor: Mothers', fathers', and children's weekday and weekend housework. , 1994 .

[20]  E. Charnov,et al.  Paternal Behavior in Humans , 1985 .

[21]  G. Farkas.  Education, Wage Rates, and the Division of Labor Between Husband and Wife. , 1976 .

[22]  R. Levant.  Fathers' Involvement in Housework and Child Care with School-Aged Daughters. , 1987 .

[23]  M. Ishii-Kuntz.  Paternal Involvement and Perception Toward Fathers' Roles: , 1994 .

[24]  Arlie Russell Hochschild,et al.  Paid Work, Parenting, and Housework: Gender Strategies and Myths@@@The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. , 1991 .

[25]  Joseph H. Pleck,et al.  Working wives, working husbands , 1986 .

[26]  Sándor Szalai,et al.  The use of time , 1972 .

[27]  D. Almeida,et al.  Examining Father Involvement and the Quality of Father-Adolescent Relations , 1991 .

[28]  W. T. Bailey.  Fathers' Knowledge of Development and Involvement with Preschool Children , 1993 .

[29]  D. Wenk,et al.  Marital Quality and Paternal Involvement: Interconnections of Men's Spousal and Parental Roles , 1994 .

[30]  W. Marsiglio.  Paternal engagement activities with minor children , 1991 .

[31]  M. Lamb,et al.  Father-Infant Relationships: Their Nature and Importance , 1978 .

[32]  A. Hochschild,et al.  The Second Shift , 1989 .

[33]  F. Stafford,et al.  Childcare, Human Capital and Economic Efficiency , 1997 .

[34]  B. McBride,et al.  A comparison of mother and father involvement with their preschool age children , 1993 .

[35]  Edward L. Aman.  How fathers care for the next generation , 1995 .

[36]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time , 1998 .

[37]  Joseph H. Pleck,et al.  Paternal involvement: Levels, sources, and consequences. , 1997 .

[38]  Harriet B. Presser,et al.  Shift Work and Child Care among Young Dual-Earner American Parents. , 1988 .