Parenting and child adjustment in families with primary caregiver fathers.

Abstract

Although greater attention has been paid to fathers' involvement in caregiving in recent decades, there is limited understanding of families with primary caregiver fathers, particularly in terms of parental psychological health and parenting quality. Findings are presented from a study of 41 primary caregiver father, 45 primary caregiver mother and 41 dual-earner families in the UK with children aged 3-6 years. Standardized interviews and questionnaires on parental psychological wellbeing, parenting and child adjustment were completed by fathers, mothers, and teachers. No differences were found between family types on any of the measures. However, multi-level modelling showed that increased parental stress was associated with greater child difficulties across all families. Overall, the findings revealed that the primary caregiver fathers were well-adjusted to their parenting role and showed no differences in quality of parenting to primary caregiver mothers. The study findings challenge the assumption that women are more suited to primary caregiving than men. Policy implications for fathers and their families are discussed.

Happy parents, happy kids: Marital happiness, parenting styles, and children's behavioral outcomes in Chinese societies

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“…The role of gender in parental responsibility remains contentious. Recent research suggests that young people continue to consider females as ultimately responsible for childcare provision (McConnon et al., 2022), despite males being described as equally competent caregivers (Jones et al., 2022). Gender disparities in caregiving are likely, therefore, to reflect traditional normative societal roles ascribed to mothers and fathers rather than competence (Couturier et al., 2020; Ganson & Hamilton‐Mason, 2019; Hughes et al., 2018; McCormack & McCann, 2015).…”

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