Childcare Tasks Research Articles

"Traditionalizing" Effect of Parenthood on First Time Mothers: Insights from a Longitudinal Study

Researchers have documented that transitioning to parenthood may have a "traditionalizing“ effect on the gendered division of housework and childcare. The goal of this research is to enhance an understanding of the factors that influence this change in behaviour and attitudes swaying it to the side of traditional gender roles. To achieve this objective, two waves of individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten women during pregnancy and four to six months postpartum. Although convenience sampling was employed for data collection, the research participants displayed variation in terms of marital status, educational level, number of children, breastfeeding practices, and other characteristics. An inductive thematic analysis was carried out, allowing for a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the data. Results show that the research participants who declared a more traditionally gendered division of household labour prior to childbirth continued to be responsible for a greater share of housework duties after childbirth. While childcare tasks were mostly carried out by mothers, surprisingly, only two out of nine women expressed dissatisfaction regarding such a division of duties. Furthermore, by employing a novel approach to measuring attitudes towards gender roles and after they became parents, four research participants have altered their views on who should be the primary carer of an infant. The research findings suggest that the “traditionalizing“ effect may be observed in the attitudes of some women without necessarily being observed in the division of housework duties. The salience of the new identity as a mother is being discussed as a precursor for the “traditionalizing“ effect observed.

Do household and childcare task divisions prospectively predict engagement in time-costly continuing education among Dutch working mothers and fathers?

Despite its importance for career development, previous cross-sectional studies have shown that individuals are reluctant to consider continuing education (CE) engagement because of family responsibilities. To prospectively test these associations, a longitudinal dataset consisting of, respectively, 548 and 809 working mothers and fathers (with one or more living-at-home children of 12 years or younger) was extracted from a Dutch population–based internet survey. Whether respondents were engaged in T2 CE was prospectively predicted by T1a (with an average 466-day time-lag) household labour, childcare division, and job–household focus, while controlling for several relevant T1b job and household characteristics. Using generalised linear mixed models, outcomes reveal that only mothers are less likely to engage in CE when they had less children. Division of household labour, childcare, and job–household focus were all not predictive of CE at T2. Future studies should examine moderators of the association between family responsibilities and CE engagement.

“Mom's a bit different”: The challenges of first-time mothers with cerebral palsy in caring for their children from birth until age three

This qualitative study examines childcare challenges and adaptive strategies among first-time Czech mothers with cerebral palsy (CP) in caring for children aged 0–3. Data obtained from ten semi-structured interviews were analyzed using selected procedures of situational analysis. The results were structured around three major themes: (1) The decision to become a mother and preparation for childcare tasks; (2) Challenges in childcare and adopted childcare strategies; (3) Social support received to manage childcare challenges. Along with findings related to the women with CP preparing themselves for the maternal role and childcare tasks, i.e. by attending a prenatal course to learn a suitable hand grip to safety hold their baby or to choose a suitable pram, the participants identified a number of practical childcare challenges they encountered postpartum. The first-time mothers initially tended to delegate challenging childcare tasks, such as lifting and carrying the newborn child, bathing and dressing or changing nappies, to family members or friends, with this support contributing to gradual development of the women's childcare methods to become an independent caregiver. Our findings underline the importance of sharing the lived experiences of mothers with CP with professional communities as well as the general public through formal education programs and informal community outreach.

Labour market gender gaps and childcare policies in countries with different social investment strategies

AbstractWe study the role of formal and informal childcare within the ECEC policies for gender employment and pay gaps, considering the life course stages distinctive for childcare tasks. The ECEC policies are framed within the types of social investment strategies identified in the EU countries to picture developments in social investments after 2005. The aggregated EU‐SILC data from 2005 to 2019 for 27 European countries have been used in the panel regression models to uncover how the caring arrangements influence labour market gendered outcomes of women at different ages (15–24, 25–49, 50–65). We find that better provision and use of early education and childcare not only contribute to early investment in human capital but it also facilitates mothers' employment and thus contributes to lowering gender employment and pay gaps. However, better coverage of care for children older than 3 years old results in negative employment effects for grandmothers. These effects vary also across countries, depending on their overall institutional setting depicted by the types of social investment strategies distinguished. Consequently, the ECEC agenda should be extended by addressing the employment of women at the pre‐retirement age. It is crucial not only for reducing gender gap in employment and pay but also in the light of challenges generated by demographic developments—the labour force shrinking and the population ageing processes.

Exploring the Role UK Grandfathers Play in Parenting Culture: Intermittent Intensive Grandfathering

Grandparents play an increasingly active caregiving role in contemporary family life. However, specific exploration of grandfatherhood and its practice is rare. This article explores how intensive parenting norms inform men’s performance of grandfathering in the United Kingdom, with ageing offering men a ‘second chance’ to (grand)parent in ways qualitatively different from fathering. In-depth interviews with UK grandfathers revealed that while they displayed ‘involved’ grandfatherhood and practised elements of intensive grandfathering, this was often in typically masculine ways. Men embraced the competitive nature of intensive parenting, particularly around educational development, and advancement. Other elements of intensive parenting (e.g. expert-dependence, over-protectiveness and self-sacrifice) were, however, overlooked. Accordingly, we introduce ‘intermittent intensive grandfathering’, recognising discontinuities in the childcare tasks that participants would/would not involve themselves.

Mother’s Instinct? Biological Essentialism and Parents’ Involvement in Work and Childcare

AbstractDespite wide public support for gender equality in work and caregiving, family responsibilities are still divided predominantly along traditional gender lines. This study examined the role of biological essentialism in the division of family roles using a nationally representative sample of British parents with young children (N = 5,605). Both mothers’ and fathers’ essentialist beliefs about men’s and women’s innate ability to care for children were associated with a more traditional division of childcare tasks, more hours of childcare provided by the mother, and fewer hours of childcare provided by the father. When gender role attitudes were considered together with biological essentialism, only essentialism was a significant predictor of involvement in childcare. Finally, the results supported our predictions that the effect of biological essentialism is mediated through parents’ work hours, and that essentialism affects mothers’ and fathers’ involvement in work and childcare in opposite directions. Taken together, the findings suggest that essentialist beliefs are a key hindrance to greater gender equality because they motivate parents to divide roles according to traditional gender norms. These findings may be of particular interest to practitioners and policy makers interested in increasing fathers’ involvement in childcare, mothers’ participation in the labor force, and overall gender equality.

Design features of work apparel for nannies’ childcare tasks in families/households for sustainable child’s health in Nigeria

<p class="Abstract">This paper describes the task-related apparel design features involved in developing prototypes for nannies. Clothes that are presently used in childcare tasks do not meet the users’ needs for carrying out activities and tasks in families. This makes their tasks more cumbersome to perform, while comfort, health, and safety are not well guaranteed. Therefore, this work aims at identifying task-related design features and developing prototype nannies’ work apparel that would facilitate babysitting tasks and minimize work hazards while ensuring the comfort, protection, and safety of children and users. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select 293 respondents. Questionnaires and body measurements were used to collect data and were analyzed with means, percentages, and Chi-square. Users were involved in the process of prototype development. The design was tested to assess its appropriateness and modified for final fitting.</p>

Stress and Resilience Experiences during the Transition to Parenthood among Belgian Lesbian Mothers through Donor Insemination.

The present research explored parenting, stress, and resilience experiences among 16 Belgian, lesbian, first-time parental couples with donor-conceived children aged 3-72 months. In each couple, both mothers participated in a conjoint, semi-structured interview focused on their parenthood desire; the impact of stigmatization and social support from families of origin, friends, and institutions; and couple and family resources. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's reflective thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: (1) "The precious baby": Realizing the parenthood project; (2) "Can we show ourselves in public without prying eyes?": Family social visibility; (3) "It's complicated!": Parental legal recognition and role imbalance; and (4) "How can we handle this?": Family resilience. The themes indicated that the child's donor conception, the parents' coming out, the non-gestational mother's role, the legal obstacles encountered, and the need to find a balance between the two mothers in childcare tasks generated stress and required mothers to develop resilience strategies. The results suggest several potential areas for mental health practitioners to explore in clinical contexts when supporting intended lesbian mothers in their transition to parenthood through donor insemination.

Shodagor women cooperate across domains of work and childcare to solve an adaptive problem.

Across human societies, women's economic production and their contributions to childcare are critical in supporting reproductive fitness for themselves, their spouses and children. Yet, the necessity of performing both work and childcare tasks presents women with an adaptive problem in which they must determine how best to allocate their time and energy between these tasks. Women often use cooperative relationships with alloparents to solve this problem, but whether or not women cooperate across different domains (e.g. work and childcare) to access alloparents remains relatively under-explored. Using social network data collected with Shodagor households in Bangladesh, we show that women who need childcare help in order to work draw on cooperative work partners as potential alloparents, and that all women rely heavily on kin, but not reciprocal cooperation for childcare help. These results indicate that Shodagor women strategize to create work and childcare relationships in ways that help solve the adaptive problem they face. We discuss the implications of our results and the example provided by Shodagor women for a broader understanding of women's cooperative relationships, including the importance of socio-ecological circumstances and gendered divisions of labour in shaping women's cooperative strategies. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'.

Childcare and housework performed by fathers with infants and related factors

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.

Gendered perspectives on sharing the load: Men’s and women’s attitudes toward family roles and household and childcare tasks.

Gendered perspectives on sharing the load: Men’s and women’s attitudes toward family roles and household and childcare tasks.

“We may share the number of diaper changes”: A Privacy and Security Analysis of Mobile Child Care Applications

Mobile child care management applications can help child care facilities, preschools, and kindergartens to save time and money by allowing their employees to speed up everyday child care tasks using mobile devices. Such apps often allow child care workers to communicate with parents or guardians, sharing their children’s most private data (e. g., activities, photos, location, developmental aspects, and sometimes even medical information). To offer these services, child care apps require access to very sensitive data of minors that should never be shared over insecure channels and are subject to restrictive privacy laws. This work analyzes the privacy and security of 42 Android child care applications and their cloud-backends using a combination of static and dynamic analysis frameworks, configuration scanners, and inspecting their privacy policies. The results of our analysis show that while children do not use these apps, they can leak sensitive data about them. Alarming are the findings that many third-party (tracking) services are embedded in the applications and that adversaries can access personal data by abusing vulnerabilities in the applications. We hope our work will raise awareness about the privacy risks introduced by these applications and that regulatory authorities will focus more on these risks in the future.

Relationships between paternal attitudes, paternal involvement, and infant-feeding outcomes: Mixed-methods findings from a global on-line survey of English-speaking fathers.

The breastfeeding intention–behaviour gap remains wide in developed countries. Current studies have focused on maternal attitudes and behaviours concerning infant feeding in order to explore barriers to breastfeeding continuation. There has been limited consideration of the impact of paternal attitudes and behaviours, despite contemporary parenthood evolving and evidence indicating that there are greater levels of paternal involvement in routine childcare tasks. This mixed‐methods study used a triangulation design to examine the associations between paternal attitudes towards parenthood and infant‐feeding methods, levels of paternal involvement, infant‐feeding outcomes, and father–infant relationships. Fathers of infants <52 weeks completed an online survey providing quantitative data (N = 212) and qualitative data (N = 208). For the quantitative data, fathers completed validated measures about their attitude towards parenthood and infant feeding, levels of paternal involvement, and infant‐feeding history. For the qualitative data, questions explored influences on paternal attitudes towards infant feeding and the father–infant relationship. After controlling for covariates, regression analyses found egalitarian attitudes towards parenthood were positively associated with both attitudes towards breastfeeding and levels of paternal involvement. Positive paternal attitudes towards breastfeeding were significantly associated with increased likelihood of breastfeeding. A thematic framework analysis indicated fathers' attitudes towards infant feeding were largely influenced by their families and partners or healthcare professionals. Polarised views were expressed about the impact infant‐feeding methods had on the father–infant relationship, although fathers were united in their desire to bond with their infant. Addressing paternal attitudes and the importance of father–infant involvement in domains other than feeding maybe beneficial in supporting breastfeeding and the father–infant relationship.

Maternal Decision-Making and Family-to-Work Spillover: Does Gender Ideology Matter?

ABSTRACT Making parenting decisions is inherent in the responsibility of raising children. Past research suggests that employed mothers may designate themselves “in charge” of these decisions in order to reconcile employment obligations with cultural gender ideologies around mothering. Despite substantial literature suggesting that the more family responsibilities one has, the more likely that family matters are to “spill over” into one’s work, little is known about how employed mothers’ “maternal decision-making” is related to spillover or how mothers’ own personal gender ideologies may influence this link. Based on a sample of employed mothers (N = 316) derived from waves 2002 and 2012 of the General Social Survey, this paper examines how maternal decision-making (i.e., mothers acting as the primary authorities on childrearing decisions) and shared parental decision-making (i.e., mothers and fathers sharing such decisions equally) are differentially associated with negative spillover and how gender ideology plays a role in these experiences. Regression results suggest that for employed mothers, maternal decision-making is associated with greater spillover but that this link is moderated by gender ideology. Among maternal decision-makers, those holding traditional gender attitudes experience greater spillover, whereas those holding egalitarian attitudes experience less spillover, similar to the spillover rate of mothers in shared parental decision-making arrangements. By shifting empirical attention from routine childcare tasks to less visible parenting responsibilities and from societal gender ideologies to individuals’ own beliefs, this study makes important contributions to research on spillover, mental labor, and gender.

Does live-in domestic help reduce unpaid household labor? The paradox of intensive parenting and domestic outsourcing

This two-stage mixed-method study pulls the literature of domestic outsourcing and intensive parenting together to investigate the role of employing live-in domestic helpers in the time-use patterns of household labor among working parents in Hong Kong. In the first stage, regression models are used to analyze data from a representative household survey of working parents ( N = 791). Regression results show that working parents who hire live-in domestic help spent less time in housework. Yet, the reduction in housework time was partially offset by the managing tasks brought about by the use of live-in help. Working parents with live-in helpers also spent significantly more time on childcare than did working parents without such help. To interpret the regression results, the study draws on qualitative data from in-depth interviews ( N = 20) to unpack the meaning of hiring help and its relationship with the notion and practices of parenting. The findings highlight that the use of live-in domestic help is a specialization strategy to strive for perfection in parenting for parents who juggle work, childcare and household chores. By outsourcing household chores and more routinized childcare tasks to the helpers, working parents, especially mothers, can focus on emotional bonding and tasks conducive to the development of their children.

Parenting Pressures Among Academic Pediatricians During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

* Abbreviation: COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 Pediatricians advocate for parent wellbeing as a component of child health, and most pediatricians are parents themselves, the majority with partners who also work.1 Yet academic departments of pediatrics inconsistently address workplace parent supports, which resulted in challenges for pediatrician parents even before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pediatrician parents are experiencing work-related and parenting-related challenges that have spurred escalating concerns about work-life integration, burnout, and remaining in the academic workforce. We offer an approach for academic departments of pediatrics to support their faculty’s pandemic-related work-life integration, noting that such supports may benefit all faculty, parents and nonparents alike. We use the term “parent” broadly to include those with dependent-care responsibilities (eg, those caring for children, adults with disabilities, or elders) and parents-to-be (ie, pregnant or family building). “Women” is intended to include all those identifying as such. Although we focus here on academic pediatricians, the pandemic parenting load affects nonphysician colleagues as well as pediatricians in nonacademic positions; this similarly warrants attention. Supports for parenting pediatricians should be implemented by using an inclusive, team-centered approach that acknowledges that some supports for parenting physicians (eg, flexible clinic schedules) will impact other members of the health care team. Even before the pandemic, parenting pediatricians faced unique challenges to work-life integration compared with their nonparenting colleagues. Despite the preponderance of parents and women in academic pediatrics, many institutions do not yet provide robust family benefits that are increasingly available in other industries (eg, paid parental leave and back-up or on-site child care). … Address correspondence to Kimberly A. Randell, MD, MSc, Division of Emergency Medicine, Children’s Mercy, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64110. E-mail: karandell{at}cmh.edu

Covid-19, Flexible Working, and Implications for Gender Equality in the United Kingdom

We examine the role flexible working has for gender equality during the pandemic, focusing on arrangements that give workers control over when and where they work. We use a survey of dual-earning working parents in the United Kingdom during the peak of the first lockdown, namely, between mid-May and mid-June 2020. Results show that in most households in our survey, mothers were mainly responsible for housework and child care tasks both before and during the lockdown period, although this proportion has slightly declined during the pandemic. In households where fathers worked from home during the pandemic, respondents were less likely to say that mothers were the ones solely or mostly responsible for housework and child care. Fathers who worked from home were more likely to say that they were doing more housework and child care during the lockdown period than they were before. Finally, we explore what we expect to happen in the postpandemic times in relation to flexible working and gender equality. The large expansion of flexible working we expect to happen may help reduce some of the gender inequalities that have exacerbated during the pandemic, but only if we reflect on and change our existing work cultures and gender norms.

Therapeutic letters: A qualitative study exploring their influence on the hope of parents of children receiving pediatric palliative care in Portugal.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the hope experiences of parents of children diagnosed with complex chronic conditions (CCCs) who received therapeutic letters. A purposive sample of 10 parents of inpatient children with CCCs was recruited from a pediatric palliative care unit in a Portuguese public hospital. A demographic form and audio-recorded semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with each participant to explore the experiences, processes, and meanings of hope, and to describe how parents of children receiving pediatric palliative care perceived the usefulness of receiving therapeutic letters. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and using a thematic analysis, a systematic approach to data analysis was completed. Data analysis resulted in three main themes including Trust in the Future; Strengthening Hope; and Moments of Hope. Findings highlight the positive influence of therapeutic letters including supporting parental hope, facilitating personal inner-strengthening, recognition of parental skills, and promotion of self-efficacy during hospitalization. The themes and related subthemes add value to the existing literature and highlight the need for supportive palliative nursing care aimed at promoting parental hope. To optimize the value of supporting parental hope, therapeutic letters can be delivered at the time of diagnosis, during times of celebration, and when learning the difficult tasks of daily childcare. Additional research can inform the development of a formal hope-based intervention to provide an evidence base from which to enhance the well-being of parental caregivers of children who have CCCs.

Paid parental leave and fathers’ involvement: capturing fathers’ gender beliefs and fathering perceptions

This study examines how multidimensional gender and fathering beliefs of fathers may explain their relative involvement in childcare after considering paid leave uptake. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from one German state, which allow us to distinguish three belief dimensions: (1) gender traditionalism and essentialism, (2) fathering attitudes, and (3) fathering self-concepts and self-efficacy. By means of multiple linear regression models we investigate how the different dimensions of gender and fatherhood beliefs relate to fathers’ relative involvement in basic and indirect childcare tasks. Our results show that gender (essentialist) ideologies and fatherhood attitudes were strongly associated with fathers’ relative involvement in both childcare domains. The higher fathers perceived self-efficacy in fathering, the more involved they were in basic but not indirect care. All belief dimensions mediated the positive association of fathers’ uptake of paid leave with their involvement in basic childcare.

Supplemental Material for Gendered Perspectives on Sharing the Load: Men’s and Women’s Attitudes Toward Family Roles and Household and Childcare Tasks

Supplemental Material for Gendered Perspectives on Sharing the Load: Men’s and Women’s Attitudes Toward Family Roles and Household and Childcare Tasks