In recent decades, conceptualizations of fatherhood have changed from a breadwinner ideal to fathers as caregivers. Despite this shift, fathers’ involvement with their children, on average, remains less than mothers’ involvement. This study examines the role of fathers’ gender roles (i.e., gender-role attitudes and provider-role attitudes) and work conditions (i.e., flexibility, supervisor and coworker support) as they independently, and in combination, predict father involvement with infants. Using a sample of 77 working class fathers, a series of path analyses were conducted with both mothers’ and fathers’ report of fathers’ involvement in fun and instrumental caregiving tasks. Results revealed that fathers with more egalitarian gender-role beliefs were more involved in fun tasks as reported by fathers, while fathers with more egalitarian provider-role beliefs were more involved in fun tasks as reported by mothers. Coworker support was associated with more instrumental and fun involvement. Fathers’ beliefs about gender-roles and their workplace flexibility interacted to predict their involvement in fun tasks, with more traditional fathers being more involved under conditions of high workplace flexibility. DocuSign Envelope ID: 5FB77C96-7C55-433C-B99A-496205649C1F iv Fathers’ provider-role beliefs interacted with their flexibility to predict mothers’ reports of their involvement in fun tasks, with more traditional fathers being more involved under conditions of high workplace flexibility. Thus, workplace flexibility may be an important predictor of father involvement for more traditional fathers, who would otherwise be less involved than their egalitarian counterparts. This study underscores the importance of supportive work conditions to increase involvement in fathers who would otherwise be less involved.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:masters_theses_2-2339 |
| Date | 03 April 2023 |
| Creators | Barcala, Diego |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses |
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