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Predictors of father involvement were explored among 98 dual-earner, working-class couples experiencing the transition to parenthood. A model combining different theoretical approaches to predict levels and rates of change in father involvement during the first year of parenthood was tested using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that father involvement at one-year postpartum was most equitable when parents worked opposite shifts, mothers were employed full-time, and mothers were lower on gatekeeping. Mothers' full-time work, economic contributions of father, gender ideology, paternal skill and baby soothability predicted changes in father involvement over time. In addition, full-time work and shift work moderated the relationship between other predictors and father involvement.
Keywords: father involvement, dual-earner families, transition to parenthood
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There is a general belief among researchers and the public alike that a more equitable division of childcare between mothers and fathers is associated with a number of positive outcomes for families. Greater father involvement in children's lives has been found to be associated with benefits for parents (Lamb, Pleck, & Levine, 1985) and children alike (Lamb, 1997; Parke, 1996; Pleck, 1997) with the benefits extending at least through adolescence (Cooks ton & Finlay, 2006). Interest in father involvement in child care activities has coincided, in part, with the increase in mothers' employment rates in the United States. In 2002, Census Bureau data indicated that 55 percent of mothers were working by six months postpartum and 64 percent by one-year postpartum compared to 14 percent and 17 percent, respectively, of mothers in the early 1960s (Johnson, 2008). Moreover, dual-earner families, in which both parents are employed outside of the home, now comprise 53.5 percent of all married couples in the U.S. (Presser, 2005). These changing demographics explain, in part, the recent trend toward a more equal division of child care tasks between partners (Lamb, 1997; Yeung, Sandberg, Davis-Kean, & Hofferth, 2001), however, research clearly indicates that mothers still spend more time on child care than fathers (e.g., Darquise, Pomerleau, & Malcuit, 2002; Finley, Mira, & Schwartz, 2008). Among two-parent families with employed mothers, fathers' involvement is greater than in single-earner families (Lamb, 1997). The overall pace of change has been slow (Pleck, 1997), however, and in dual-earner, middle-class families with infants, mothers perform,...