Revisiting the Gender Gap in Childcare: Time with Children and Parents' Emotional Well-being

• In Event: 054 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Families and Time Use

Abstract

Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time-diary, and survey data from the 500 Family Study this article examined the prevalence, determinants, and emotional correlates of parental childcare time. Findings showed that in nearly three- fourths of the time spent with children, parents engaged in activities that were not child-centered (i.e. non-focused and passive childcare). Multilevel models revealed that shared meals and interactive activities were particularly beneficial to parents' emotional well-being and insulated from their work conditions. Routine childcare time, by contrast, was negatively related to work hours. It was also associated with increased stress but only among mothers. Overall, mothers spent more time in childcare than fathers and this gap was mainly due to mothers' more frequent engagement in non-focused and passive childcare. Mothers were also less likely to provide childcare in conjunction with their spouse. These findings highlight the unequal division of childcare by gender.
Keywords: dual-earner families, experience sampling method, gender inequality, parental childcare time, well-being

Author

• Shira Offer, Bar-Ilan University