Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T01:41:12.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The composition of parents’ and grandparents’ child-care time: gender and generational patterns in activity, multi-tasking and co-presence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2015

LYN CRAIG  and
BRIDGET JENKINS
LYN CRAIG*
Affiliation:
Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
BRIDGET JENKINS
Affiliation:
Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Lyn Craig, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, Sydney, Australia 2052 E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do grandparents spend their child-care time? We examine how the composition of grandparent child care differs from parent child care, and whether child-care composition is more gender-similar for grandparents than for parents. Using the most recent (2006) Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey, we investigate along three dimensions: (a) the activities child care consists of (routine versus non-routine), (b) whether it is multi-tasked (and whether it is paired with productive activities or with leisure), and (c) whether it is done solo or with a partner present. We find fathers and grandmothers' active child care is similarly apportioned between routine and non-routine activities, while mothers spend much more, and grandfathers spend much less, of their child-care time in routine care activities. Fathers and grandfathers spend similar proportions of their child-care time multi-tasking with leisure (about 50%) and performing care without their spouse present (about 20%), differing significantly from women on both these measures. Gender differences in the proportion of child care multi-tasked with productive activities (paid work, domestic work or other child care) are the same in both generations, but gender differences in the proportion of child care that is spent in routine activities, and that is done without a partner present, are significantly less for grandparents than for parents. The narrower gender gaps result from grandmothers spending less of their child-care time on these measures than mothers, not from grandfathers spending more of their child-care time on these measures than fathers.

Keywords

grandparentsparentingchild carecare compositiongendertime use
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , April 2016 , pp. 785 - 810
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arber, S. and Timonen, V. (eds) 2012a. Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Arber, S. and Timonen, V. 2012b. Grandparenting in the 21st century: new directions. In Arber, S. and Timonen, V. (eds), Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. pp. 247–264, Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Areni, C. and Holden, S. 2014. The Other Glass Ceiling: Fathers Stepping Up, Mothers Letting Go. Darlington Press, Sydney.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2006. An Introduction to Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA). Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2012. Childhood Education and Care, Australia, June 2011. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.Google Scholar
Baxter, J. and Hewitt, B. 2013. Negotiating domestic labor: women's earnings and housework time in Australia. Feminist Economics, 19, 1, 29–53.Google Scholar
Baxter, J. and Smart, D. 2011. Fathering in Australia among couple families with young children. Occasional Paper 37, Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Canberra.Google Scholar
Bianchi, S. and Milkie, M. 2010. Work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 3, 705–25.Google Scholar
Buis, M. 2006. Proportions as dependent variable. Paper presented at the 12th UK Stata Users Group Meeting, London 11-12 September.Google Scholar
Cassells, R., McNamara, J., Lloyd, R. and Harding, A. 2005. Perceptions of child care affordability and availability in Australia: what the HILDA Survey tells us. Paper presented at the Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, 9–11 February, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Condon, J., Corkindale, C., Luszcz, M. and Gamble, E. 2013. The Australian first-time Grandparents’ Study: time spent with the grandchild and its predictors. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 32, 1, 21–7.Google Scholar
Coontz, S. 1992. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Craig, L. 2006a. Children and the revolution: a time-diary analysis of the impact of motherhood on daily workload. Journal of Sociology, 42, 2, 125–43.Google Scholar
Craig, L. 2006b. Does father care mean fathers share? A comparison of how mothers and fathers in intact families spend time with children. Gender & Society, 20, 2, 259–81.Google Scholar
Craig, L. 2006c. The money or the care? A comparison of couple and sole parent households’ time allocation to work and children. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 40, 4, 521–40.Google Scholar
Craig, L. 2007. How employed mothers in Australia find time for both market work and childcare. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 28, 1, 69–87.Google Scholar
Craig, L. and Mullan, K. 2009. The policeman and the part-time sales assistant: household labour supply, family time and subjective time pressure in Australia 1997–2006. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 40, 4, 545–60.Google Scholar
Craig, L. and Mullan, K. 2010. Parenthood, gender and work-family time in USA, Australia, Italy, France and Denmark. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 5, 1344–61.Google Scholar
Craig, L. and Mullan, K. 2011. How mothers and fathers share childcare: a cross-national time-diary comparison. American Sociological Review, 76, 6, 834–61.Google Scholar
Craig, L. and Powell, A. 2011. Nonstandard work schedules, work–family balance and the gendered division of childcare. Work, Employment and Society, 25, 2, 274–91.Google Scholar
Craig, L. and Powell, A. 2013. Non-parental childcare, time pressure and the gendered division of paid work, domestic work and parental childcare. Community, Work and Family, 16, 1, 100–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, L., Powell, A. and Smyth, C. 2014. Towards intensive parenting? Changes in the composition and determinants of mothers and fathers’ time with children 1992–2006. British Journal of Sociology, 65, 3, 555–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duncan, S. and Edwards, R. 2003. State welfare regimes, mothers’ agencies and gendered moralities. In Kollind, K. and Peterson, A. (eds), Thoughts of Family, Gender, Generation and Class: A Festschrift to Ulla Bjornberg pp. 1–23. Sociology Institute, Gothenburg.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, B. and English, D. 2005. For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women. Anchor Books, New York.Google Scholar
Emslie, C., Hunt, K. and O'Brien, R. 2004. Masculinities in older men: a qualitative study in the west of Scotland. Journal of Men's Studies, 23, 3, 207–25.Google Scholar
Finch, J. and Mason, J. 1993. Negotiating Family Responsibilities. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Fisher, K. and Robinson, J. 2010. Daily routines in 22 countries: diary evidence of average daily time spent in thirty activities. Centre for Time Use Research, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Flouri, E. and Buchanan, A. 2003. The role of father involvement in children's later mental health. Journal of Adolescence, 26, 1, 63–78.Google Scholar
Fuligni, A. S. and Brooks-Gunn, J. 2004. “Measuring Mother and Father Shared Caregiving: An Analysis Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement”. in Conceptualising and Measuring Father Involvement edited by R. D. Day. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar
Furedi, F. 2001. Paranoid Parenting: Abandon Your Anxieties and be a Good Parent. Allen Lane, London.Google Scholar
Ghysels, J. 2011. The provision of informal childcare by European grandparents: constraints versus selective preferences. CSB Working Paper 11/08, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.Google Scholar
Goodfellow, J. and Laverty, J. 2003. Grandcaring: insights into grandparents’ experiences as regular child care providers. University of Western Sydney, Sydney.Google Scholar
Gornick, J. and Meyers, M. 2003. Families that Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. Russell Sage, New York.Google Scholar
Gray, M., Baxter, J. and Alexander, M. 2008. Parent-only care: a child care choice for working couple families? Family Matters, 79, 42–9.Google Scholar
Hank, K. and Buber, I. 2009. Grandparents caring for their grandchildren: findings from the 2004 survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe. Journal of Family Issues, 30, 1, 53–73.Google Scholar
Hays, S. 1998. The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Hook, J. and Wolfe, C. 2012. New fathers? Residential fathers’ time with children in four countries. Journal of Family Issues, 33, 4, 415–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horsfall, B. and Dempsey, D. 2013. Grandparents doing gender: experiences of grandmothers and grandfathers caring for grandchildren in Australia. Journal of Sociology. published online before print 28/8/13.Google Scholar
Jappens, M. and van Bavel, J. 2012. Regional family norms and child care by grandparents in Europe. Demographic Research, 27, 4, 85–120.Google Scholar
Jenkins, B. 2013. Grandmother care and family power in Australia: incorporating the complexities and contradictions of carework. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Lareau, A. 2000. Social class and the daily lives of children: a study from the United States. Childhood, 7, 2, 155–71.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. 2009. Work–Family Balance, Gender and Policy. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.Google Scholar
Mann, R. 2007. Out of the shadows? Grandfatherhood, age and masculinities. Journal of Aging Studies, 21, 4, 281–91.Google Scholar
Martinengo, G., Jacob, J. and Hill, J. 2010. Gender and the work–family interface: exploring differences across the family life course. Journal of Family Issues, 31, 10, 1363–90.Google Scholar
Mattingly, M. and Sayer, L. 2006. Under pressure: gender differences in the relationship between free time and feeling rushed. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 68, 1, 205–21.Google Scholar
Mitchell, W. 2007. Research review: The role of grandparents in intergenerational support for families with disabled children: a review of the literature. Child & Family Social Work, 12, 1, 94–101.Google Scholar
Ochiltree, G. 2006. The changing role of grandparents. Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse Briefing 2, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Offer, S. and Schneider, B. 2011. Revisiting the gender gap in time-use patterns: multitasking and well-being among mothers and fathers in dual-earner families. American Sociological Review, 76, 6, 809–33.Google Scholar
Orloff, A. 2009. Gendering the comparative analysis of welfare states: an unfinished agenda. Sociological Theory, 27, 3, 317–43.Google Scholar
Papke, L. and Wooldridge, J. 1996. Econometric methods for fractional response variables with an application to 401(K) plan participation rates. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 11, 6, 619–32.Google Scholar
Pfau-Effinger, B. 2004. Socio-historical paths of the male breadwinner model – an explanation of cross-national differences. British Journal of Sociology, 55, 3, 377–99.Google Scholar
Pocock, B., Skinner, N. and Williams, P. 2012. Time Bomb. Work, Rest and Play in Australia Today. New South Publishing, Sydney.Google Scholar
Quirke, L. 2006. ‘Keeping young minds sharp’: children's cognitive stimulation and the rise of parenting magazines, 1959–2003. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 43, 4, 387–406.Google Scholar
Sayer, L., Bianchi, S. and Robinson, J. 2004. Are parents investing less in children? Trends in mothers’ and fathers’ time with children. American Journal of Sociology, 110, 1, 1–43.Google Scholar
Sullivan, O. 1997. Time waits for no (wo)man: an investigation of the gendered experience of domestic time. Sociology, 31, 2, 221–39.Google Scholar
Sullivan, O. and Gershuny, J. 2013. Domestic outsourcing and multitasking: how much do they really contribute? Social Science Research, 42, 5, 1311–24.Google Scholar
Tarrant, A. 2012. Grandfathering: the construction of new identities and masculinities. In Arber, S. and Timonen, V. (eds), Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Policy Press, Bristol, UK, 181–201.Google Scholar
Timonen, V. and Arber, S. 2012. Introduction: a new look at grandparenting. In Arber, S. and Timonen, V. (eds), Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Policy Press, Bristol, UK, 1–27.Google Scholar
Uhlmann, A. J. 2006. Family, Gender and Kinship in Australia: The Social and Cultural Logic of Practice and Subjectivity. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK.Google Scholar
Wall, G. 2010. Mothers’ experiences with intensive parenting and brain development discourse. Women's Studies International Forum, 33, 3, 253–63.Google Scholar
Wearing, B. M. and Wearing, C. G. 1996. Women breaking out: changing discourses on grandmotherhood? Journal of Family Studies, 2, 2, 165–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheelock, J. and Jones, K. 2002. ‘Grandparents are the next best thing’: informal childcare for working parents in urban Britain. Journal of Social Policy, 31, 3, 441–63.Google Scholar
Whelan, S. 2012. Work or care? The labour market activity of grandparents in Australia, pp. 1–29. paper presented at seminarChild Care, Work, and Family: Issues for Australian Policy. National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, University of Canberra, Canberra, 16 January.Google Scholar
Williams, F. 2004. Rethinking Families. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London.Google Scholar
Yeung, J., Hill, M. and Duncan, G. J. 2000. Putting fathers back into the picture: parental activities and children's adult outcomes. Marriage and Family Review, 29, 2/3, part 1, 97–113.Google Scholar