Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:19:39.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Father Involvement and Marital Relationship during Transition to Parenthood: Differences between Dual and Single-Earner Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Susana Menéndez ,
Mª Victoria Hidalgo ,
Lucía Jiménez  and
Mª Carmen Moreno
Susana Menéndez*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Huelva (Spain)
Mª Victoria Hidalgo
Affiliation:
Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
Lucía Jiménez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
Mª Carmen Moreno
Affiliation:
Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Susana Menéndez Álvarez-Dardet. Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación. Universidad de Huelva. Campus del Carmen, Avda. Tres de Marzo s/n, 21001 Huelva (Spain). E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research into the process of becoming mother or father shows very conclusively that this important life transition is accompanied by both a decrease in marital quality and a more traditional division of labour. In this paper these changes are analyzed with special emphasis on the relationships between them and exploring the role played in this process by the mother's work status. Results showed a significant link between the development of marital quality and violated expectations regarding father involvement on childrearing. Dual-earner families were characterized by a specific pattern of changes, with greater stability than single-earner families in marital and parental roles during transition to parenthood and a significant role played by spouse support as a partner, but not as a parent.

La investigación sobre el proceso de convertirse en madre o en padre muestra, de manera muy concluyente, que esta importante transición evolutiva suele estar caracterizada por un decremento en la calidad de la relación de pareja y por una tradicionalización en la división de las tareas dentro del hogar. En este artículo se analizan ambos tipos de cambios prestando especial atención a la relación entre los mismos, y se explora el papel que juega en ellos el hecho de que la mujer trabaje o no fuera del hogar. Los resultados indican que existe una importante relación entre el desarrollo de la relación de pareja y la violación de expectativas respecto a la implicación del padre en la crianza y el cuidado del bebé. Las parejas en las que ambos miembros trabajan fuera del hogar tienden a estar caracterizadas por una mayor estabilidad en los roles como pareja y como progenitores durante la transición, y por el significativo papel que en este proceso juega el apoyo del cónyuge como pareja y no como progenitor.

Keywords

father involvementmarital qualitytransition to parenthoodmother's work statusimplicación paternacalidad de la relación de parejatransición a la paternidad y la maternidadestatus laboral de la madre
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , November 2011 , pp. 639 - 647
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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

Alberdi, I. (1995). Informe sobre la situación de la familia en España [Report about the family in Spain]. Madrid, Spain: Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales.Google Scholar
Barnett, R. C., & Baruch, G. K. (1987). Determinants of fathers' participation in family work. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 29–40. doi:10.2307/352667Google Scholar
Barnett, R. C., & Baruch, G. K. (1988). Correlates of fathers' participation in family work. In Bronstein, P. and Cowan, C. P. (Eds.), Fatherhood today: Men's changing role in the family (pp. 66–78). New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Belsky, J. (1985). Exploring individual differences in marital change across the transition to parenthood: the role of violated expectation. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 47, 1037–1052. doi:10.2307/352348CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belsky, J., & Rovine, M. (1990). Patterns of marital change across the transition to parenthood: pregnancy to three years postpartum. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 5–19. doi:10.2307/352833CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belsky, J., Lang, M. E., & Huston, T. L. (1986). Sex typing and division of labour as determinants of marital change across the transition to parenthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 517–522. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.3.517CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulanda, R. E. (2004). Paternal involvement with children: The influence of gender ideologies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 66, 40–45. doi:10.1111/j.0022-2455.2004.00003.xGoogle Scholar
Cowan, C. P., & Cowan, P. A. (2000). When partners become parents. The big life change for couples. New Jersey, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Crouter, A. C., & Manke, B. A. (1997). Development a typology of dual-earner families: a window into differences between and within families in relationships, roles and activities. Journal of Family Psychology, 11(1), 62–75. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.11.1.62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, F. M., Lussier, J. B., & Servis, L. J. (1993). Husbands at home: Predictors of paternal participation in childcare and housework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(6), 1154–1166. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.6.1154CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engle, P. L., & Leonard, A. (1995). Fathers as parenting partners. In Bruce, J. Lloyd, C. B. and Leonard, A. (Eds.), Families in focus: New perspectives on mothers, fathers and children (pp. 49–70). New York, NY: The Population Council.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. (2000). Parents' convergence on sharing and marital satisfaction, father involvement, and parent-child relationship at the transition to parenthood. Infant Mental Health Journal, 21(3), 176–191. doi:10.1002/1097-0355(200007)21:3<176::AIDIMHJ3>3.0.CO;2-43.0.CO;2-4>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaunt, R. (2005). The role of value priorities in paternal and maternal involvement in child care. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(3), 643–655. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00159.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaunt, R. (2006). Biological essentialism, gender ideologies, and role attitudes: What determines parents' involvement in child care. Sex Roles, 55, 523–533. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9105-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, A. E., & Perry-Jenkins, M. (2004). Division of labour and working-class women's well-being across the transition to parenthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 18(1), 225–236. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.18.1.225CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottfried, A. E., & Gottfried, A. W. (2006). A long-term investigation of the role of maternal and dual-earner employment in children's development. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(10), 1310–1327. doi:10.1177/0002764206286557CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hidalgo, M. V. (1994). The process of becoming mother and father. An ecological and developmental analysis. (Unpublished PhD Dissertation). Sevilla, Spain: Universidad de SevillGoogle Scholar
Iglesias de Ussel, J. (1998). La familia española en el contexto europeo [Spanish family in the European context]. In Rodrigo, M. J. & Palacios, J. (Coords.), Familia y desarrollo humano (pp. 91–114). Madrid, Spain: Alianza.Google Scholar
Instituto de la Mujer. (2007). Las mujeres en cifras [Women in numbers]. Retrieved from http://www.inmujer.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&cid=126400560067&pagename=InstitutoMujer%2FPage%2FIMUJ_genericoGoogle Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estadística. (2010). Indicadores sociodemográficos básicos [Basic demographic indicators]. Retrieved from http://www.ine.es/jaxi/menu.do?type=pcaxis&path=%2Ft22/e308_mnu&file=inebase&L=0.Google Scholar
Lamb, M. E., Pleck, J. H., Charnov, E. L., & Levine, J. A. (1987). A biosocial perspective on parental behavior and involvement. In Lancaster, J. B. Altmann, J. Rossi, A. S. and Sherrod, L. R. (Eds.), Parenting across the life span: biosocial dimensions (pp. 11–42). Howthorne, NY: Aldine De gruyter.Google Scholar
Lawrence, E., Nylen, K., & Cobb, R. J. (2007). Prenatal expectations and marital satisfaction during transition to parenthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 21(2), 155–164. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.21.2.155CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, C., & Doherty, W. (2007). Marital satisfaction and father involvement during the transition to parenthood. Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers, 5, 75–98. doi:10.3149/fth.0502.75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy-Shiff, R. (1994). Individual and contextual correlates of marital change during the transition to parenthood. Developmental Psychology, 30(4), 591–601. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.30.4.591CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy-Shiff, R., & Israelashvili, R. (1988). Antecedents of fathering: some further exploration. Developmental Psychology, 24(3), 434–440. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.24.3.434CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBride, B. A., Brown, g. L., Bost, K., Shin, N., Vaughn, B., & Korth, B. (2005), Paternal identity, maternal gathekeeping, and father involvement. Family Relations, 54(3), 360–372. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2005.00323.xGoogle Scholar
McBride, B. A., & Mills, g. (1993). A comparison of mother and father involvement with their preschool age children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 8, 457–477. doi:10.1016/S0885-2006(05)80080-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minuchin, P. (2002). Looking toward the horizon: present and future in the study of family system. In McHale, J. P. & grolnick, W. S. (Eds.), Retrospect and prospect in the psychological study of families (pp. 259–278). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Parke, R. D. (2002). Fathers and families. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.). Handbook of parenting, Vol. 3: Being and becoming a partner (pp. 27–73). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Paterna, C., & Martínez, M. C. (2006). Fathers and gender traditionalism: Perception of inequality and life roles. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 9(2), 171–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paterna, C., & Martínez, M. C. (2009). Influencia de las variables de género en la distribución de las tareas domésticas y de cuidado. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 43(2), 240–248.Google Scholar
Pleck, J. H. (1997). Paternal involvement: Levels, sources and consequences. In Lamb, M. E. (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (3rd ed) (pp. 66–103). New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rane, T. R., & McBride, B. A. (2000). Identity theory as a guide to understanding fathers' involvement with their children. Journal of Family Issues, 21, 347–366. doi:10.1177/01925 1300021003004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, D. (1990). Network influences on father involvement in childrearing. In Cochran, M. Larner, M. Riley, D. Gunnarsson, L., & Henderson, Ch. (Eds.), Extending families. The social network of parents and their children. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar