Abstract
ObjectiveBuilding on previous analysis conducted by Schober (2012), we explore how paternal involvement in different childcare and housework tasks affects the probability of relationship breakdown between parents.MethodsWe use logistic regression on the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study to predict parental relationship breakdown from nine months to seven years post‐childbirth. Paternal involvement in four childcare and three housework tasks during the first year of parenthood, are used as explanatory variables.ResultsThe amount of time the father spends alone, caring for the baby during the first year of parenthood, is associated with the stability of the parental relationship but the effect of involvement in other tasks is moderated by ethnicity and the mother's employment status.ConclusionThese nonlinear relationships suggest further research is needed to explore the different associations between paternal involvement in childcare and housework and relationship breakdown, which are complex and variable according to different characteristics.
Highlights
ObjectiveBuilding on previous analysis conducted by Schober (2012), we explore how paternal involvement in different childcare and housework tasks affects the probability of relationship breakdown between parents
Our analysis suggests that the type of task that a father is involved in does not significantly alter the effect on relationship breakdown, it does suggest that the amount of time the father spends alone caring for the baby during the first year of parenthood is associated with the stability of the parental relationship
Men who engage more in care-work are at least partly contributing to the “second shift” of household labor, which makes for a happier, more stable relationship (Hochschild and Machung, 2012), our analysis shows that men’s contributions to housework have no significant effect
Summary
Building on previous analysis conducted by Schober (2012), we explore how paternal involvement in different childcare and housework tasks affects the probability of relationship breakdown between parents. Previous research identifies a complex array of demographic and economic factors that increase the risk of relationship breakdown, beyond the obvious dissatisfaction and unhappiness with the relationship These include financial hardship (e.g., Dew and Stewart, 2012), having parents who divorced (e.g., Goodman and Greaves, 2010), a low level of education (e.g., Kalmijn, 1999), and cohabiting rather than being married (e.g., Mooney, Oliver, and Smith, 2009). The risk of relationship breakdown is higher for interracial marriages (e.g., Zhang and van Hook, 2009; Aughinbaugh, Robles, and Sun, 2013) This scenario is likely to have become more prevalent in the United.
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