What influences paternal involvement in childcare over the child’s life course in the UK?

1. What influences paternal involvement in childcare over the child’s life course in the UK? Helen Norman University of Manchester, UK 18th September 2017 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas: seminar University of Lisbon, Portugal

2. Which fathers are involved in looking after their children? Identifying the conditions associated with paternal involvement • Aim: To establish which employment and socio-demographic characteristics shape paternal involvement as children age from nine months to eleven years old. • Award: ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (Phase 3) • Dates: 1 February 2016 - 31 October 2017 • Award holders: Dr Helen Norman (PI), Professor Colette Fagan (Co-I), Professor Mark Elliot (Co-I). RA: Dr Laura Watt. University of Manchester, UK • Project partner: Working Families: https://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/ • URL: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/involved-fathers/

3. Project research questions • How can we develop quantitative measure(s) of paternal involvement in childcare? • What influences paternal involvement in childcare at different time points of a child’s life? (i.e. 9 months, 3, 5, 7 and 11 years old) • Does a father’s childcare and employment behaviour in the first year of a child’s life affect how involved he is when the child is older? • Do the trajectories of paternal involvement over the child’s lifecourse vary between fathers and if so, what are the predictors? • Does paternal involvement impact on the stability of the relationship between the mother and the father?

4. Presentation outline • The gender division of labour in the UK • Work-family policy in the UK • Theoretical framework • Research Questions • Data and methods • Results: which fathers are the most involved? • Conclusions and policy implications

5. The gender division of labour in the UK • Men do more childcare and housework, but still much less than women. • Normative ideas about what it is to be a ‘good’ father have shifted to include being involved in childcare, but being the (main) economic provider remains a central feature. • 95% of MCS (S1) fathers agreed they should be involved in a child’s upbringing. • Women usually switch to part-time employment after having children. • 67% of mothers with dependent children (under 18) employed (2010); 37% = PT • Rare for mothers to work full-time if they have a pre-school child, more likely if she is a manager/senior professional • This ‘one-and-a-half earner’ family model is perpetuated by public policy and normative beliefs that children suffer if their mothers are employed full-time.

6. Theoretical framework What is paternal involvement? • Defined as a father who participates in the nurturing tasks involved in the ‘taking care of’ children. Amartya Sen’s (1992) capabilities framework: • Economic, social, demographic and cultural factors exert logistical pressures on how childcare and domestic work is arranged. • Thus, fathers may strive to be involved parents but organisational policies, social norms, and household circumstances hinder or enable their capabilities to be involved.

7. Work-family policy in the UK • Long maternity leave (52 weeks) • 6 weeks paid @90% of salary; 33 weeks paid at low flat rate (£140 / €155 p/week); remaining 13 weeks unpaid • Short period of paternity leave (2 weeks) • Paid at a low flat rate (£140 / 155€ p/week) • Equivalent to 25% of men’s FT median (gross) weekly earnings • Most dads (>90%) take time off after the birth of their baby but only half use paternity leave (Chanfreau et. al 2011). • Parental leave- recently reformed to facilitate take up amongst fathers (as ‘Shared Parental Leave’) • Pre-school childcare -(15 hours p/week over 38 weeks of the year) • ‘Right to request’part-time or flexible hours

8. Research Questions • To explore which socio-demographics, employment and attitudinal related variables are associated with paternal involvement when children are aged 9 months, 3, 5 and 7 and 11 years old? • Do the variables which influence fathers change as a child gets older? • Does a father’s childcare and employment behaviour in the first year of a child’s life affect how involved he is when the child is older?

9. Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) • A nationally representative survey following a cohort of children born around 2000 in the UK • We use the first five sweeps of MCS data: • Sweep 1 (2000/01): aged 9 months • Sweep 2 (2004/5): aged 3 years • Sweep 3 (2006): aged 5 years • Sweep 4 (2008): aged 7 years • Sweep 5 (2012): aged 11 years • The sample was filtered to include the same heterosexual couples, intact over all five sweeps of data (n=5,899)

11. Data and Methods Method to derive our dependent variables: • Factor analysis (a data reduction technique) • Identifies patterns of relationships and correlations between variables • Then reduces a large number of variables into a smaller number of latent factors Dependent variables (or latent factors): • Paternal involvement (PI) at 9 months old • PI at 3 years old • PI at 5 years old • PI at 7 years old Method to explore what influences PI: • Four multiple regression models

12. Results: What influences paternal involvement when the child is aged 9 months, 3, 5 and 7 years old?

13. What makes fathers involved? *p <0.05; **p <0.01; ***p <0.001

14. Summary: What makes fathers more involved? i) Fathers are more likely to be involved in the first year if: • They work standard, full-time hours (30-45 hrs p/week) • The mother works full-time (31+ hrs p/week) ii) Fathers are more likely to be involved when the child is aged 9 months, 3, 5 and 7 years old if: • They share childcare equallyin the first year • They take leave immediately after the birth • They are highly educated • They have a boy iii) Fathers are less likely to be involved when the child is aged 9 months, 3, 5 and 7 years old if: • They are Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian

15. Conclusions and policy implications A more supportive infrastructure could be achieved by: • Helping fathers to balance their work and family roles in the first year of parenthood • Parental leave that is well paid and has a period reserved specifically for the father • Limits to long hours working • Promotion of flexible working to men • Supporting mothers back to work after having children • Good quality, flexible and affordable childcare • Quality part-time employment • Closing the gender pay gap

16. References • Project URL: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/involved-fathers/ • Fagan, C., Norman, H. (2016): ‘What makes fathers involved? An exploration of the longitudinal influence of fathers’ and mothers’ employment on father’s involvement in looking after their pre-school children in the UK’ in Crespi, I., Ruspini, E. (ed): Balancing work and family in a changing society: the father’s perspective, Palgrave MacMillan: Basingstoke • Norman, H. (2017): Paternal involvement in childcare: how can it be classified and what are the key influences, Families, Relationships and Societies. 6, 1, p. 89-105 • Norman, H. and Fagan, C. (2017) What makes fathers involved in their children’s upbringing? Working Families Work Flex Blog, 20 January 2017: https://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/workflex-blog/father-involvement/ • Norman, H., Watt, L., Fagan, C. (2017) What should mums and dads do? Changes in attitudes towards parenting, Working Families Work Flex Blog, 27 March 2017: https://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/workflex-blog/what-should-mums-and-dads-do-changes-in-attitudes-towards-parenting/ • Norman, H., Elliot, M. and Fagan, C. (2014) ‘Which fathers are the most involved in taking care of their toddlers in the UK? An investigation of the predictors of paternal involvement’, Community, Work & Family, 17:2, 163-180 • Fagan, C. and Norman, H. (2013) ‘Men and gender equality: tackling gender equality in family roles and in social care jobs’ in F. Bettio, J. Plantenga and M. Smith (Eds) Gender and the European Labour Market, Routledge: Oxon, UK.