Childcare and housework performed by fathers with infants and related factors

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to identify the status regarding childcare and housework performed by fathers with infants (one and two years old, first child), as well as related factors.Method An online survey of fathers with infants across Japan was administered in October 2020. The survey items encompassed basic attributes, work conditions, and child-rearing information, as well as items from the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI), Work-Family Conflict Scale (WFCS), and a Japanese version of the K6 screening tool. The frequency of performing childcare and housework was divided into two groups, frequent and infrequent, and furthers into four groups based on the combination of frequent and infrequent childcare and housework. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed with the frequent/infrequent childcare group, the frequent/infrequent housework group, and the four groups by childcare and housework each as dependent variables.Results Responses were obtained from subjects in 44 prefectures, with 406 responses used for analysis. Frequently performed items for childcare and housework were hugging, playing together, and taking out trash. Infrequent performed items were making hospital visits, ensuring children's regular medical examinations and vaccinations, preparing meals, and sleeping. The results of the multiple logistic regression analyses demonstrated that the groups citing the frequent performance of childcare tasks were correlated with participation in parenting/father-directed classes, the use of parental leave, wives engaged in formal employment, work requiring less than 10 hours of overtime per month, the highest level of education (junior high school, high school, junior college, vocational school, or technical school: non-university graduate), low WFCS scores, and high QMI scores. The groups citing the frequent performance of housework were associated with not living with grandparents, shift work, participation in parenting/father-directed classes, household yearly income of 6 million yen or more, highest level of education (non-university graduate), wife engaged in formal employment, wife's health condition (normal, poor, very poor), and high QMI scores. The subjects were divided into four groups: frequent childcare-frequent housework (38.4%), frequent childcare-infrequent housework (14.0%), infrequent childcare-frequent housework (19.5%), and infrequent childcare-infrequent housework (28.1%). Among the four groups, the highest correlation was observed for participation in parenting/father-directed classes, overtime hours, wife's work status, and QMI scores.Conclusion To promote participation in parenting, fathers should be encouraged to care for children more frequently and help with housework. As such, introducing support methods in classes for fathers is a necessary step toward this objective.