Involvement in Childrearing and Mothers' and Fathers' Adjustment

Combining social construction of gender and equity perspectives on parents' division of labor, this study extended research on associations between parents' childrearing involvement and adjustment by (a) differentiating between types of childrearing activities (task focused vs. relationship focused), (b) examining patterns of differences in these links for mothers versus fathers, and (c) testing whether gender-role attitudes regarding family labor moderated these associations. One hundred sixty-nine mothers and fathers reported on perceptions of their involvement in relationship-focused and task-focused childrearing, gender role attitudes, and their adjustment (parenting efficacy, depression, parenting stress, and role overload). Results indicated that fathers benefited from greater overall childrearing involvement, whereas higher relationship-focused care was linked to more negative adjustment for mothers. Gender role attitudes moderated these links for fathers, such that traditional fathers who were more involved in childrearing reported better parental adjustment. The within-couple complexities of involvement in childrearing and implications for parenting programs are discussed.Key Words: division of childcare, gender differences, gender role attitudes, parental adjustment.Despite women's increasing presence in the paid workforce over the past several decades, family labor remains largely organized along gendered lines (Bianchi, Robinson, & Milkie, 2006; Coltrane, 2000). Although fathers' involvement in child care has increased significantly in recent decades, even employed women tend to assume greater responsibility for family labor than men (Dempsey, 2002). According to social construction of gender theory, couples maintain a gendered division of household labor to define and establish family roles (Ferree, 1991). The resulting overall organization of family labor does not, however, appear to be beneficial for women. In line with equity theory, researchers have found that, beyond absolute levels of one's own involvement (Milkie, Bianchi, Mattingly, & Robinson, 2002), inequitable division of family labor relative to one's partner puts individuals at risk for distress (Goldberg & Perry- Jenkins, 2004). As such, the expectation to maintain gendered lines of housework and child care appears to be dysfunctional for individual wellbeing, particularly for women who carry a greater burden to assume family labor than men (Lavee & Katz, 2002). Through the integration of social construction of gender and equity perspectives, the overarching goal of this study was to expand upon what is known about mothers' and fathers' relative involvement in childrearing and their own adjustment. First, we recognize that childrearing encompasses a range of activities and responsibilities, and involvement in care that is relationship focused (i.e., potentially discretionary and enjoyable) versus task focused (i.e., typically routine and mundane) may have different implications for parents' adjustment (Coltrane, 2000). Parental adjustment, too, is multifaceted; as such, building on prior work that has tended to focus on a single indicator of adjustment, we examined links between each type of involvement and mothers' and fathers' parenting efficacy, depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and role overload. Although conceptually and empirically related, these dimensions have been shown to be distinct aspects of subjective well-being (Foster et al., 2008). We also examined the degree to which a greater relative burden of child care contributed to mothers' versus fathers' well-being. Using a sample of mostly married, dual-earner first-time parents enabled us to test for differences between mothers and fathers from the same household.There is some evidence that attitudes toward gender roles become more traditional at the transition to parenthood (Katz-Wise, Priess, & Hyde, 2010), and remain relatively stable throughout adulthood (Fan & Marini, 2000). …