Role Distribution in High-Resource Multi-Child Families

Abstract

Researches note the family role transformation that is most distributed among the young, educated and wealthier groups of the population. However, multi-child families are unnoticed among these social groups. At the same time, educated multi-child families with a relatively high level of income (high-resource multi-child families) are of particular research interest, having distinctive features from families with fewer children and similar indicators due to the volume of intra-family load. Based on the analysis of the in-depth interviews conducted by the author, it is shown the coexistence of patriarchal and egalitarian practices in the distribution of family roles in high-resource multi-child families. The role associated with the material support of the family can be considered as a patriarchal one, whereas there is a prevalence of egalitarian values in the private sphere – men are actively involved in the sphere of household and affairs related to children. The level of workload and the amount of necessary resources requires the most effective use of intra-family resources (including attracting older children to participate in family affairs), as well as the involvement of external assistants, in particular the active use of social capital, which can be the closest relatives (usually grandmothers) or friends. At the same time, the key role of the “family manager”, who controls the private sphere of the family, belongs to women, who also serve as the main source of emotional investment in the family. The work notes not only the over-employment of fathers in the labor market and mothers in the private sphere, partially accompanied by employment in the economy, but also a high level of involvement of children in the educational process. It is concluded that it is the contribution of each family member, including older children, allows them to be high-resource families.