Consequences of fathers' participation in family work: parents' role strain and well-being.

Abstract

The relation of fathers' participation in family work (child care and home chores) to parents' role strain and well-being was examined in an interview study of 160 Caucasian middle-class fathers and mothers of kindergarten and fourth-grade children. In half of the families, mothers were employed. Four forms of paternal participation were examined. Role-strain items referred to immediate and specific problems such as time and energy constraints and role conflicts. Well-being measures assessed self-esteem, life satisfaction, and quality of experience in the parental and marital roles. Regression analyses, carried out separately for fathers and for mothers, indicated that, contrary to expectation, when the level of fathers' participation was controlled maternal employment did not condition the relation between participation and the outcome variables. Findings varied for the different forms of participation. For fathers, higher levels of participation were associated with feeling more involved and competent as a parent and with being more critical of wives' patterns and parenting. For mothers, those whose husbands were more participant praised their husbands' parenting, but they were lower in life satisfaction and were more self-critical about their balance of work and family responsibilities.