Fathers' Involvement in Child Health Care: Associations with Prenatal Involvement, Parents' Beliefs, and Maternal Gatekeeping

Abstract

Using data from 182 dual-earner couples experiencing the transition to parenthood, this study examined associations between prenatal involvement, gender role beliefs, and maternal gatekeeping and new fathers’ involvement in child health care. Results indicated that prenatal father involvement was associated with both fathers’ direct engagement in child health care and fathers’ perceived influence in child health-related decision-making. Fathers also demonstrated greater direct engagement in child health care when mothers held more nontraditional beliefs about gender roles. Moreover, when mothers were more encouraging of fathers’ involvement in childrearing, fathers felt more influential in child health-related decision-making, whereas when mothers engaged in greater gate closing behavior, fathers with more traditional gender role beliefs felt less influential in child health-related decision-making. This study suggests that fathers’ prenatal involvement, mothers’ beliefs, and maternal gatekeeping may play a role in the development of new fathers’ involvement in child health care at the transition to parenthood.

Maternal Gatekeeping

“…McBride and Rane (1998) suggested that a supportive coparenting relationship is one in which one parent encourages the other to be involved with the children (i.e., the mother encourages the father to be involved with his children). Other researchers have also found that encouragement and supportive coparenting are conceptually similar (Zvara, Schoppe-Sullivan, & Dush, 2013). Thus, in this study, we view encouragement as being synonymous with coparenting support.…”

Motherhood and Family Health Advocacy in Nutrition and Exercise: “Doing the Tradition”

“…Furthermore, the lack of fatherly voice was disappointing. 4 Although this pattern is typical in family research, particularly among fathers of minority races (Parke et al, 2003), failing to attend to fathers' involvement in family caregiving silences this collective and subverts their role in caregiving (Zvara, Schoppe-Sullivan, & Dush, 2013). It is crucial to explore multiple family roles when assessing the development and socialization of family members (see Parke, 2004).…”

The Bottle, the Breast, and the State: The Politics of Infant Feeding in the United States

“…For example, the dynamics of feeding an infant if only the mother can directly feed can quickly change parenting roles. Even beliefs about engagement and involvement influence the possibilities of maternal gatekeeping (Zvara, Schoppe‐Sullivan, & Kamp Dush, ). These issues have several nuances, just like the other qualitative themes discussed in the book.…”