A Model of Paternal Involvement in Child Care and Household Labor

The current study was designed to test a model predicting fathers' involvement in child care and household labor. Participants were 120 couples of 1-to-4 year old children. The participants were recruited from 12 local daycares. Mothers and fathers independently completed a measure assessing participation in child care and household labor; the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (Schumm et al., 1986); the Male Role. Norms Inventory (Levant et al., 1992); a measure assessing beliefs about the parental role (Bonney & Kelley, 1996); and a demographic questionnaire. The LISREL approach to data analysis was employed. The findings indicate that the following constructs work together in order to increase paternal involvement in child care: marital satisfaction, paternal competence, paternal masculinity ideology, paternal beliefs concerning the parental role, paternal number of hours worked per week, and maternal number of hours worked per week.