Does Father Care Mean Fathers Share?

By Lyn Craig. 2006

1,042 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article uses diary data from the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey (N > 4,000) to compare by gender total child care time calculated in the measurements of (1) main activity, (2) main or secondary activity, and (3) total time spent in the company of children. It also offers an innovative gender comparison of relative time spent in (1) the activities that constitute child care, (2) child care as double activity, and (3) time with children in sole charge. These measures give a fuller picture of total time commitment to children and how men and women spend that time than has been available in previous time use analyses. The results indicate that compared to fathering, mothering involves not only more overall time commitment but more multitasking, more physical labor, a more rigid timetable, more time alone with children, and more overall responsibility for managing care. These gender differences in the quantity and nature of care apply even when women work full-time.

Subfields: Demography, Gender Studies, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/40771c75add344c22c82007943fddd1e3215324c

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Citations in the corpus

Dealing with sleep problems during home confinement due to the COVID‐19 outbreak: Practical recommendations from a task force of the European CBT‐I Academy (2020, background): “While many parents share childcare and household responsibilities, in most families these tasks are still predominantly managed by mothers (Bittman & Wajcman, 2000; Craig, 2006; Offer & Schneider, 2011).”
Rough and tumble play quality: theoretical foundations for a new measure of father–child interaction (2013, background): “A consistent finding in studies of mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviours is that play comprises a greater proportion of fathers’ interaction with children than it does of mothers’ (Craig, 2006; Lindsey, Mize, & Pettit, 1997).”
Hegemonic masculinity versus a caring masculinity: Implications for understanding primary caregiving fathers (2017, background): “Further, there has been considerable debate surrounding whether fathers are actually living up to these new expectations (Craig, 2006; Cosson & Graham, 2012; Doucet, 2004, 2009; Henwood & Procter, 2003; LaRossa, Gordon, Wilson, Bairan & Jaret, 1980; Lupton & Barclay, 1997).”
Perceived Paternal and Maternal Involvement: Factor Structures, Mean Differences, and Parental Roles (2008, background): “Theorists and researchers recognize that mothers and fathers play different roles in the family system (Craig, 2006; Parke, 2002, 2004).”
A Review of the Literature on the Social and Economic Determinants of Parental Time (2008, background): “For instance, fathers tend to spend more time in more rewarding childcare activities such as playing and teaching ( Craig 2006a; Darling-Fisher and Tiedje 1990; Grossman et al. 1988), while mothers spend more time in personal childcare activities such as bathing and feeding (Craig 2006a; DeStefano ”
The Unpaid Care Work–Paid Work Connection (2008, neutral): “For example a recent study based on Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey shows evidence indicating that compared to fathering, mothering involves not only more overall time commitment but more multitasking, more physical labour, a more rigid timetable, more time alone with children, and m”
A Matter of Time: Father Involvement and Child Cognitive Outcomes (2018, background): “Altogether, these results are consistent with previous evidence, pointing to lower paternal than maternal involvement in child care (Craig, 2006) and higher heterogeneity in involvement among mothers than fathers (Craig & Mullan, 2011).”