Flexibility and sharing of childcare duties in black families

Abstract

With the increasing number of Black mothers participating in the labor force, rearing children without fathers present, and relying on extended family for support the question of the nature of role-flexibility and sharing in the family is raised. Sixty-four families participated in an examination of the relative influence of one- and two-parent Black families and the proximity of the grandmother on self-report measures of (a) household maintenance duties, (b) childcare duties, and (c) parental punishment behaviors. Parents, grandmothers, and at least one child between the ages of 7 and 14 years completed three types of self-report measures. Although the results indicated that mothers, fathers, and grandmothers were nominated as consistently participating in childcare and household maintenance duties, mothers were nominated for more than 60% of the childcare and household tasks. Moreover mothers and not fathers used the full range of discipline practices including corporal punishment. The hypothesis regarding role-sharing in Black household was not supported. Black mothers, like mothers in general, are primarily responsible for the maintenance of the house and the care of children.