Social psychological predictors of involvement in childcare: the mediating role of changes in women’s work patterns after childbirth

ABSTRACT

This study sought to explore the role of couples’ social psychological characteristics in the division of childcare responsibilities. Using a longitudinal sample of 148 expecting couples, gender ideologies, attitudes toward the father role and self-enhancement values were measured during the third trimester of pregnancy. As hypothesized, prenatal gender ideologies predicted maternal and paternal involvement in childcare one year postpartum, and their effect was mediated by changes in the mothers’ work patterns following childbirth. Moreover, parents’ attitudes toward the father role predicted the father’s involvement in childcare, and the importance the parents placed on self-enhancement values predicted their own lower levels of involvement in childcare and greater involvement of their spouses. Taken together, the findings stress the importance of couples’ social psychological characteristics and suggest that they guide couples’ decisions about changes in the mother’s work hours and income, which in turn affect the division of childcare responsibilities.     

How does paid work affect who does the childcare? An analysis of the time use of Australian couples

This paper analyzes the effect of paid work by coupled parents of young children on the joint decisions to spend time engaged in childcare. We explore this using Australian Time-Use Survey data from 2006. We examine the effect of paid work in terms of the effect that total work time on a given day has on the amount of time spent on childcare; the allocation of time on activities across work and non-work days; and the effect of non-traditional work hours. The results show that mothers perform a large share of childcare, irrespective of their earning power or their partner’s availability to take on some of these tasks. The use of formal and informal childcare by others allows the mother to balance the competing demands of work and her own childcare; an effect that does not hold for fathers. These effects on childcare are also almost solely concentrated in the routine component of childcare (e.g. preparing meals, changing nappies), with each parent ‘protecting’ interactive childcare from the effect of both paid work and the relative availability of their partner to take on some of this childcare.     

Working mothers’ decisions on childcare: the case of Spain

This paper aims to analyze household decisions regarding the childcare of young children. We present two specifications. The first one assumes a sequential decision process. Firstly, parents choose between paid or unpaid care and, secondly, those who opt for paid childcare must decide whether to take their children to a nursery or pre-school or employ somebody to care for them. The second specification is a multinomial Logit in which it is assumed that parents choose from three alternatives: unpaid care, paid care by a nanny, and center-based care. We apply our models to a sample of working mothers with children under three. The database used is the 2008–2010 Spanish Survey of Quality of Working Life (Encuesta de Calidad de Vida en el Trabajo). The results are in line with previous work: Parental education, family composition, income and the characteristics of the mother’s job are important factors in determining the type of childcare chosen for under-three-year-olds.     

Non-parental childcare,time pressure and the gendered division of paid work,domestic work and parental childcare

What impact does out-sourcing childcare have on the time parents spend on paid work, domestic work and childcare, and how they share these tasks between themselves? Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) 2006 we investigate the effects of formal and informal non-parental childcare on the time use of couples with children aged 0–4 years (N=348). We examine associations between non-parental care and (1) couples' combined time in paid work, domestic work and childcare, (2) parents' time separately by gender in paid work, domestic work and childcare (subdivided by activity type) and (3) parents' self-reported time pressure. Total workloads (the sum of paid work, domestic work and childcare) are neither higher nor lower when non-parental care is used, either for households combined or for each gender separately. The way time is spent, and how activities are divided by gender does differ, however. For mothers the use of any non-parental care and more hours in formal care is associated with more paid work hours, less childcare time and higher self-reported time pressure. Fathers' time is more constant, but they report higher subjective time pressure with increasing hours of formal non-parental care.     

Center-based childcare use by Hispanic families: Reasons and predictors

This study explored the reasons and factors associated with childcare use for Hispanic children of preschool age with working and nonworking mothers. National Household Education Survey/Early Childhood Program Participation 2005 data were used. The data suggested that use of center-based childcare is more frequent than use of parental care, relative care, or nonrelative care. In general, family poverty status, mother's education, household composition, mother's work status, and acculturation are all significant predictors of center-based childcare use. The importance of the educational and pragmatic characteristics of childcare plays a significant role in childcare selection for parents of Hispanic preschool-age children. Mothers who put greater value on socialization are more likely and mothers who put greater value on location and reliability are less likely to use a center-based childcare. Nevertheless, the relationship between family characteristics and center-based childcare use, and the relationship between the importance of childcare characteristics and center-based childcare use, depends on the mother's working status.     

Women, work and childcare: where have we been? Where are we going?

Working mothers who simultaneously manage a job, raise children, and maintain a home may find the endeavor to be physically and emotionally challenging. By means of a case study, this paper explores the impact of work-related injury on one mother's ability to meet the physical demands of childcare and homemaking tasks without jeopardizing her physical recovery or job security. Following a musculoskeletal injury at work, the subject received traditional occupational therapy intervention as well as specific education regarding ergonomic childcare techniques. Her ability to perform routine homemaking and childcare tasks was assessed prior to and following treatment using the ErgoMomics MOMS (Measure of Musculoskeletal Symptoms) survey. The case study suggests that educating mothers in ergonomic techniques related to vocational as well as avocational tasks may be beneficial in helping them manage the dual demands of family life and career. Additional informal interviews were conducted with twelve mothers, ages thirty-five to sixty-eight, in order to frame the case study within a wider historical perspective concerning the role of work in women's lives.     

Attitudes towards childcare and social practices: discrepancy between attitudes and employment trajectories of mothers in Spain (1994–2012)

This paper examines the evolution of attitudes and behaviors of Spanish women regarding maternal employment and childcare. We used data from the ISSP Module ‘Family and Changing Gender Roles’ (International Social Survey Programme [ISSP]: Family and Changing Gender Roles Module [1994, 2002 and 2012]). First, we studied the determinants of choosing to work or not when one becomes a mother: the most important factors are education, attitudes towards maternal employment and having had a working mother when the respondent was a child. Second, we compared the changes in attitudes and employment trajectories. In more than half of the mothers, we found a discrepancy between their ideal and actual employment trajectories. This discrepancy has been increasing over the past 20 years in the case of mothers with children younger than school age and has been decreasing slightly in the case of women whose children have started school. Nevertheless, there are significant variations: more highly educated women have greater opportunities to minimize inconsistencies between their orientations and their behaviors.     

The relationship of maternal work characteristics to childcare type and quality in rural communities

Drawing on data from the Family Life Project collected in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, this paper examines the relationship between maternal work characteristics and childcare type and quality in rural communities. Research is limited on the childcare experiences of rural families. Rural areas have less access to formal childcare and families often commute long distances for work, restricting childcare options. Employed mothers using childcare were selected (n=441). Logistic and OLS regression was used to examine which characteristics, including workplace support, objective occupational measures, hours, wage, and shift, predicted care type and quality. Results indicated that most families were using informal care. Those with more hazardous work conditions and working night shifts were less likely to use centers. Higher quality care was related to more workplace support, center use, and higher wages. Implications for social policy and practice are discussed.     

Childcare and parental work schedules: a comparison of childcare arrangements among Finnish,British and Dutch dual-earner families

This study examined the association between parental work schedules and non-parental childcare arrangements among dual-earner families in Finland, the Netherlands and the UK. Data from the ‘Families 24/7’ web survey were used, including 937 parents with children aged 0–12 years. Results showed a negative association between non-standard work and formal childcare across all countries. A similar association was found for using a combination of formal and informal childcare, whereas solely using informal childcare was not associated with work characteristics. Country differences showed that, compared with Finland, the probability of using formal childcare was lower in the Netherlands, whereas the probability of using informal childcare was higher in the UK. Interaction effects showed that the negative association between non-standard work and formal childcare was stronger in the Netherlands, compared with Finland. Also, the positive association between working hours and formal childcare was weaker for Dutch and British parents. This study identified the challenges that parents face when arranging childcare outside of office hours. Although the supply of formal childcare seems to be insufficient, using informal childcare introduces other potential problems. Because a considerable proportion of employees work non-standard hours, governments should help these parents in meeting their need for high quality childcare.     

Navigating norms and structures: young mothers’ pathways to economic independence

Understanding the complex relationships between childcare, education and work is crucial to acknowledging how young mothers express agency in their pathways to economic independence. Instead of considering them as a policy target group at risk for multiple reasons, this research reverses the perspective by focusing on young mothers’ agency in school and paid employment. The study is set in the Netherlands, where economic independence has become a focal point of social policy and practice, especially for young people. It explores how young mothers navigate norms and structures of education and employment, drawing on 18 months of participant observation and 41 semi-structured interviews with young mothers. Notions of ‘everyday’ and ‘bounded’ agency are used in analysing structural limitations (e.g. irregular working hours in ‘women’s jobs’, a lack of maternity leave at school) and norms (e.g. completing higher education and finding a good job versus being primary caretakers, enjoying children and being role models). School and workplace structures reinforce contradictory discourses of motherhood and economic independence. Young mothers exhibit agency in considering their options around job security, work experience, wages, student loans and spending time with children. In doing so, they navigate structural and normative collisions of economic independence and mothering.     

Childcare and labor force participation in the Netherlands: the importance of attitudes and opinions

We analyze the joint decision of participating in the labor force and using paid childcare made by mothers in two-parent households with pre-school age children in the Netherlands. Both the choice to use paid childcare and the number of hours taken up are analyzed. The data, collected in 2004, contains information on economic factors and on attitudes and opinions on childcare and labor. While acknowledging potential endogenous selection effects and bidirectional causality implying problems of endogeneity with the attitudes and opinions, our results show that, in addition to economic factors, attitudes and opinions are important when explaining the decision to participate in the labor force and to use paid childcare services, but they are less important when it comes to the decision on the number of hours childcare is taken up.     

Labor Market Penalties for Mothers in Italy

We use a large Italian employer-employee matched dataset to study how motherhood affects women’s working career in terms of labor force participation and wages. We confirm that the probability of exiting employment significantly increases for mothers of pre-school children; however, this is mitigated by higher job quality, human capital endowment and childcare accessibility. Most importantly, the availability of part-time jobs reduces their probability of moving out of the labor force. Women not leaving employment after becoming mothers experience lower wages than women with no pre-school child, and there are no signs of this gap closing 5 years after childbirth. Contrary to previous literature, the wage gap penalty emerges only among women working full-time, thanks to the high protection accorded to part-time jobs in Italy.     

What Women Want: Employment Preference and Adjustment Among Mothers

In this study of over 2000 mothers, we considered the alignment between employment preference and status, examining the well-being of mothers who were employed and wanting to work; employed because they need the money; not employed and not wanting work; and not employed but wanting to work. Alignment between employment preference and employment status was significantly associated with well-being, and mothers who stayed at home but wanted work had the most difficulties. Strong associations across multiple outcomes were found for emotional support variables, and costs of childcare was the most common reason for staying home even if employment was desired. Results suggest the importance of women’s self-agency in employment decisions, access to child-care, and emotional support in mothers’ lives.     

Maternal labor market return and domestic work after childbirth in Britain and Germany

This study investigates how the duration of maternal labor market interruptions and mothers' employment status after return relate to the division of domestic work in couples after childbirth in West Germany, East Germany, and Britain. It extends the literature by considering how these two aspects of postnatal labor market return decisions of mothers may give rise to or counteract growing gender inequality in domestic work afterbirth events. Using data on 826 British and 1614 German new parent couples based on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) (1991–2008) and on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) (1990–2010), I apply fixed-effects panel models. Mothers perform more housework with increasing length of their employment interruptions across the three contexts. For childcare, longer time-outs increase mothers' childcare share in West Germany but not in East Germany. This result is in line with institutional variations in day-care provision. Across contexts, mothers' full-time returns are associated with a larger reduction in their domestic work share than short time-out. After mothers returned to part-time employment, couples show no or much weaker compensating behaviors for longer previous maternal time-outs than after a full-time return.     

‘Men have careers,women have babies’: unequal parental care among Irish entrepreneurs

This paper examines how entrepreneurial parents in Ireland negotiate their work and family roles, drawing upon a national survey of women and men entrepreneurs, to ascertain the degree to which entrepreneurship facilitates a more equitable sharing of domestic and caring tasks. Relatively few studies have examined familial and domestic task allocation in the context of entrepreneurship, as opposed to employment. The results suggest that mothers (and not fathers) adopted flexible working strategies; took on a disproportionate responsibility for caring and domestic labour; and experienced greater role conflict. Far from contradicting the prevailing findings of gender and employment issues, the study validates the gendered patterns of divergence between men and women and illustrates how they extend into entrepreneurship. Fathers worked significantly longer hours; their career trajectories were typically continuous, in full-time work, while mothers had more fragmented working patterns, reflecting absences for caring and adjustments such as part-time or working from home. It is still mothers, rather than fathers, who feel responsible for childcare arrangements and this imposes time constraints on their pursuit of entrepreneurship. The study points to the need for policy interventions to encourage entrepreneurship alongside co-parenting through childcare provision/subsidies and equal treatment in access to family-related leave.     

Innovative Social Policies: Implications for Work–life Balance among Low‐waged Women in England

We investigated innovative social policies drawn from the European arena — universal systems of childcare, a shorter working week and shared parental leave — asking about their relevance to the work–life balance of low‐waged coupled mothers in England. While in principle the policy environment has shifted from assumptions of a male breadwinner to dual earners, in practice severe constraints on mothers' labour market attachment bring women half the lifetime earnings of men. British Household Panel Survey data for coupled low‐waged women in England show them as likely to work short part‐time hours, have low‐waged partners and low household wages while belonging to male breadwinner partnerships in terms of their contribution to household wages and unpaid work; but that few women support this model. Interviews with low‐waged mothers show evidence of limited choices, constrained by social policies which offer limited and piecemeal support for working parenthood. Given the choice, low‐waged mothers and their partners would find policies available elsewhere in Europe attractive. They see a more universal comprehensive system of childcare as enabling women's employment and improving children's quality of life; a shorter working week as enabling mothers and fathers to lead more balanced lives and a father's quota of parental leave fitting with their assumptions about sharing care.     

To work or not to work? Immigrant women and work between constraints and opportunities: a comparison between Lombardy and Cataluña

The aim of this article is to analyse how family constraints, in term of gender roles and child-care responsibilities, affect the behaviour and attitudes of immigrant women towards work, comparing Italy (Lombardy) and Spain (Barcelona). Moreover, personal skills, the economic crisis, and the limited job opportunities for migrants (who access mostly low-qualified jobs) also play a role in the employment status of immigrant women. Therefore, we are interested in understanding the reasons that make women decide to work (or seek a job) or not, and how they feel about their work or their unemployed status. We will analyse 72 interviews (47 in Italy and 25 in Spain) with working and non-working women of different nationalities, taking into account years of staying in the hosting country, family composition, level of education, and kind of job, in order to combine these different aspects with the attitudes and outcomes towards work.     

Giving Up: How Gendered Organizational Cultures Push Mothers Out

Explanations for professional and managerial mothers' departure from paid work concentrate on childcare and women's preferences or choices. In contrast, our study, based on in‐depth interviews with professional and managerial mothers in London, shows that women's experiences within hegemonic masculine cultures play a key role. For example, working time norms require these mothers to work exceptionally long hours, to have permeable time boundaries even if they have negotiated reduced working hours and to ‘socialize’ in the evenings. Mothers are limited in their ability to protest or implement creative working time solutions because they feel they must hide their motherhood, which in itself creates tension. Mothers who are seemingly supported to work fewer hours are sidelined to lower‐status roles for which they are underpaid and undervalued in relation to their experience and previous seniority. Unless mothers mimic successful men, they do not look the part for success in organizations.     

Predicting the timing of maternal employment after birth among a low-income and ethnically diverse sample

Policy pressures in the USA to transition parents from public assistance to work and concerns about the effects of early maternal employment on children highlight the importance of studying predictors of the timing of postpartum maternal employment. Little attention has been given to postpartum employment patterns of low-income ethnic minorities and immigrants, whose working conditions and employment prospects are different from white, middle-class mothers. Using a sample of low-income Mexicans, Dominicans, and African-Americans (N = 310), we studied whether and when mothers start working the first year following childbirth, and what factors promote or delay postpartum employment. Using discrete-time survival analysis, we modeled the odds of working at each month and tested the influence of family context, mothers' work and family values and plans, maternity leave benefit, and instrumental support availability on the timing of employment. By 11 months, half of the mothers had started working. Having maternity leave, plans to work, childcare arrangements, and a strong work orientation increased the odds of working. Household earnings were related to postpartum employment, but this effect varied over time. For African-Americans, instrumental support availability predicted earlier returns to employment, whereas for Mexicans and Dominicans it related to later returns to employment.     

Understanding the High Rates of Employment among Low‐educated Women in Portugal: A Comparatively Oriented Case Study

This article addresses the question of why Portugal is an exception among southern European countries in having a high rate of female employment. Cross‐national data show an even greater gap between Portugal and its southern European neighbours in the employment rates for low‐educated women. This article presents case‐based evidence on the work orientations, gender relations and reconciliation strategies of low‐educated women working in the clothing industry in Portugal. The analysis reveals that while economic need plays an important role in their attachment to employment, their work decisions are forged by a complex set of attitudes regarding employment and the family. Traditional values regarding the role of women in the family co‐exist with more modern values regarding their employment participation. Moreover, the institutional arrangements of childcare and reconciliation also appear to be more supportive than might be expected in a southern Europe welfare state. By focusing on a particular group of low‐educated women, the findings suggest that the same welfare policies may have different impacts on the reconciliation strategies of women of different socioeconomic groups.