A Comparison of Fathers' and Mothers' Involvement in Childcare and Stimulation Behaviors During Free-Play with Their Infants at 9 and 15 Months

Fathers and mothers of 87 firstborn infants completed a parental responsibility questionnaire; recorded accessibility and direct interaction time in caregiving, play, and outings; and were videotaped in a free-play session with their infants at 9 and 15 months of age. Analyses compared fathers' and mothers' involvement and interactive behaviors, and examined age-of-infant and gender-of-infant effects. At both times, fathers reported being less accessible to their infants and spending less time in direct interaction with them than did mothers. During times when both parents were available to the infant, fathers were less likely to provide basic care, but spent an equivalent amount of time in play and outings. Fathers in dual-earner families spent less time in accessibility, caregiving, and outings, but they engaged in as much play as mothers. Responsibility for disciplining the infant was rated as being equally shared amongst parents. During play, parents did not differ in the amount of physical contact, conventional play, nonconventional play, and attempts to direct the infant's attention. However, fathers vocalized less and made fewer requests than mothers. Differences between paternal and maternal involvement in childcare and stimulation behaviors are discussed with respect to infant age and infant gender.     

Effects of extended father-infant contact during the newborn period

Studies within the past decade have suggested that extended contact between mothers and newborns may have positive effects on later parent-infant interaction and may impact favorably upon the establishment of the mother-to-infant attachment bond. The present study was designed to determine whether similar extended contact effects occur for fathers. The results indicated that a group of fathers who attended their infants' births and received extended postpartum hospital contact with their infants engaged in greater amounts of en face behavior and vocalization with their infants and were more involved in infant caretaking responsibilities at 6 weeks postpartum and had higher self-esteem scores following the births compared to another group of fathers who attended their infants' births but received traditional amounts of hospital contact. Although there were more behavioral similarities than differences between the two groups of fathers, positive effects were found on behavioral measures, standardized psychometric measures, and on self-report questionnaires. The results indicated that extended contact effects are at least as salient with fathers as with mothers.     

Mothers' and fathers' childcare involvement with young children in rural families in Malaysia

There is a paucity of data on paternal involvement in childcare in traditional Muslim families in Asia. Using cultural‐ecological models of human development that focus on the developmental niche and hegemonic perspectives on masculinity, mothers' and fathers' levels of childcare involvement with infants were examined in 50 two‐parent, low‐income, rural Malay Muslim families residing in peninsular Malaysia. The major goals were to examine gender of parent and gender of child differences in involvement in childcare activities. Mothers and fathers were interviewed separately in their homes regarding the amount of time and levels of involvement in bedtime routines, physical care of, playing with, singing to, feeding, and soothing infants. Groupwise comparisons of parental perceptions revealed a marked gender‐differentiated pattern of involvement: Mothers perceived that they were significantly more involved in bedtime routines, physical care, feeding, playing, soothing, and singing to infants than did fathers. On average fathers estimated that they spent 18% as much time cleaning infants (0.63 versus 3.50 hours), 22% as much time feeding infants (0.76 versus 3.49), and 56% as much time playing with infants (2.77 versus 4.92 hours) relative to mothers. These patterns of involvement suggest that in traditional, rural Malay Muslim families, mothers are the primary caregivers to infants, and contrary to the father as play partner hypothesis, mothers engaged in more play with infants than did fathers. Despite divergent levels of involvement, mothers and fathers were equally as inclined to be involved with their male or female infants. Findings are interpreted in terms of traditional Muslim beliefs about gendered ideologies regarding childcare roles and levels of paternal involvement in groups of fathers in rural and urban Malaysia. The limitations, due in part to gathering data from single informants and the nature of the sample, and the implications of the findings for increasing paternal involvement are noted.     

The social environments of early infancy in Japan and the United States

The social environments of early infancy in Japan and the United States were compared in terms of the context of caregiving and the quality of the month-infant interaction. Mothers of 17 Japanese infants and 17 infants in the United States were interviewed in their homes about the experiences that they provided for their 4-month-old infants, and mother-infant interactions were recorded on videotape. Levels of parents' education were similar in both countries. The context of the infant's development varied substantially with culture. Mothers in the United States provided a greater variety of experiences on the HOME and care of Japanese infants tended to be more exclusively provided by mothers whereas care of infants in the United States was shared by fathers and other caregivers to a greater extent. Examination of behaviour frequencies during mother-infant interaction indicated that mothers in Japan provided their infants with more vocal input and more physical play than mothers in the United States and Japanese mothers were more vocally responsive to their infants' vocalizations.     

Cesarean childbirth: Psychological implications for mothers and fathers

Home observations, ratings of interaction, and interviews were carried out in families with first-born 5-month-old infants. Comparisons were made between two groups of families differing as to whether the childbirth had been a Cesarean or vaginal delivery. Fathers whose babies had been born by Cesarean delivery reported greater involvement in child care and were rated as more responsive to infant distress. Both mothers and fathers tended to show less animation in interactions with their infants following a Cesarean delivery: mothers engaged less frequently in vigorous physical stimulation and showed less reciprocal positive affect with their infants, and fathers smiled less at their infants.     

Infants of “depressed” mothers interact better with their nondepressed fathers

To determine whether infants of “depressed” mothers interact better with their nondepressed fathers, twenty-six 3- to 6-month-old infants were videotaped during face-to-face interactions with their parents. The “depressed” mother group consisted of twelve 3- to 6-month-old infants and their “depressed” mothers and nondepressed fathers. The control group was composed of 14 nondepressed mothers and nondepressed fathers and their 3- to 6-month-old infants. In the “depressed” mother group, the nondepressed fathers received better interaction ratings than the “depressed” mothers. In turn, the infants received better interaction ratings when they interacted with their nondepressed fathers than with their “depressed” mothers. In contrast, nondepressed fathers and mothers and their infants in the control group did not differ on any of their interaction ratings. These findings suggest that infants' difficult interaction behaviors noted during interactions with their “depressed” mothers may not extend to their nondepressed fathers. The data are discussed with respect to the notion that nondepressed fathers may “buffer” the effects of maternal depression on infant interaction behavior.     

Interaction behavior of infants and their dual-career parents

The behaviors of dual-career parents were compared in face-to-face interactions with their 8-month-old infants who attended on all-day infant nursery. Mothers, as compared to fathers, exhibited more frequent smiling, vocalizing, and touching with their infants. In turn, the infants spent a greater proportion of the interaction time smiling and being motorically active when they were interacting with their mothers versus their fathers.     

Mothers' responses to infants' facial expressions of sadness,anger, and physical distress

It was hypothesized the mothers' predictions of their caregiving interventions would be differentially influenced by infants' facial expressions of sadness, anger, and physical distress. Mothers viewed slides of infants whose facial displays had first been objectively classified with the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (Izard, 1979). Mothers imagined their infants showing similar expressions while scaling their own tendencies to respond with a number of specific caregiving and socializing interventions and affective reactions. Multivariate ANOVAs showed that the mothers' predictions differed for the three types of negative display. In an emotion decoding task, mothers' responses did not differ as a function of the infants' sex. The patterns of decoded emotions were most similar between physical distress and anger expressions, and least similar between physical distress and sadness expressions. Generally, the findings supported the hypothesis that the negative facial displayes signaled different affective states and had differential motivational effects on the mothers.     

Joint attention with the mother and the father at 10 months of age

Joint attention capabilities were assessed in 52 10-month-olds observed independently with their mothers and fathers in a semi-structured toy-play condition. Mothers and fathers were indistinguishable in terms of total number of behaviours aimed at engaging their infant in joint attention. However, infants responded more to mothers' bids for attention than to fathers' bids. Contrastingly, infants tended to display more initiating joint attention behaviours while interacting with their fathers. Although parents did not differ in terms of sensitivity, fathers were less intrusive than mothers. Results are discussed in terms of the specificities of mother-infant and father-infant interaction and how the paternal role should be highlighted in the case of infant's joint attention development.     

Infant touching behaviour during mother–infant face‐to‐face interactions

The study of infant communication during mother–infant interactions has largely focused on infants' distal behaviours, while neglecting their more proximal behaviours, such as touch. Yet, touch is an important modality through which infants and mothers communicate; it is also a vital means through which infants self‐regulate and explore their surroundings. The present study was designed to investigate the touching behaviours of 44, 51/2‐month‐old, healthy, full‐term infants during face‐to‐face mother–infant interactions. A still‐face (SF) procedure was used in order to examine differences in the types and locations of infant touch across normal and perturbed interaction periods, when mothers exhibit changes in their emotional availability. Results revealed that infant touch varied with changes in maternal availability. During the SF period, when mothers were unavailable, infants used more active, soothing, and reactive tactile behaviours (stroke, finger, pat, and pull), and they spent more time touching themselves. In contrast, infants used mostly passive touch (static) during the Normal periods, when their mothers were available. They also spent a significant portion of time touching their mothers. The variations in infant touch across periods suggest that infants communicate their affective states through touch. The findings also support the regulatory and exploratory roles of infant touch, especially during periods of maternal unavailability. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The 1990s: Gender differences in parenting roles

Seventy European American families with 6-month-old infants participated in this investigation of current parenting roles. Parental reports and observations revealed that mothers were more involved with the infants and fathers were employed outside the home more hours per week than mothers. Both parents rated the mother as a better caretaker of the infant than the father. The mother rated the father's caretaking abilities higher than he rated himself. In concordance with previous research, maternal concerns about separations related to employment were found to be influenced by maternal employment factors. Paternal concerns about separations related to employment were also influenced by maternal employment factors. Changes in parenting roles were discussed.     

Effectiveness of Primiparae and Multiparae at Soothing Their Newborn Infants

To examine the effectiveness of new parents at soothing their infants, the authors filmed primiparae (20 mothers, 20 fathers) and, for comparison, multiparae (25 mothers, 25 fathers) during an interaction with their crying 2- to 3-day-old infants. Data were derived from loudness ratings of the infants' distress signals and by measuring the time it took parents to quiet their infants. In addition, specific parental behaviors were coded by microanalysis. From these data, measures of soothing effectiveness and behavioral profiles were derived. Data analyses showed that most primiparae were effective at soothing their infants' cries and that there were no parity effects on measures of soothing effectiveness. However, mothers, regardless of parity, were more effective at quieting their infants than were fathers, and there were significant differences in mothers' and fathers' caregiving behaviors. These data suggest that primiparae are effective at quickly soothing their newborns and that their skill, as measured, does not depend on parenting experience. Moreover, the data point to significant differences in mothers' and fathers' competence at quieting their newborns whether or not they are experienced at parenting.     

Interpreting infant emotional expressions: Parenthood has differential effects on men and women

Interpreting and responding to an infant's emotional cues is a fundamental parenting skill. Responsivity to infant cues is frequently disrupted in depression, impacting negatively on child outcomes, which underscores its importance. It is widely assumed that women, and in particular mothers, show greater attunement to infants than do men. However, empirical evidence for sex and parental status effects, particularly in relation to perception of infant emotion, has been lacking. In this study, men and women with and without young infants were asked to rate valence in a range of infant facial expressions, on a scale of very positive to very negative. Results suggested complex interaction effects between parental status, sex, and the facial expression being rated. Mothers provided more positive ratings of the happy expressions and more extreme ratings of the intense emotion expressions than fathers, but non-mothers and non-fathers did not. Low-level depressive symptoms were also found to correlate with more negative ratings of negative infant facial expressions across the entire sample. Overall, these results suggest that parental status might have differential effects on men and women's appraisal of infant cues. Differences between fathers’ and mothers’ perceptions of infant emotion might be of interest in understanding variance in interaction styles, such as proportion of time spent in play.     

Social networks of family members: Distinctive roles of mothers and fathers

The personal social networks of fathers, mothers, and adolescent children in a sample of intact family triads were examined in order to explore the effect of sex role on parent-adolescent continuities in social orientations. Comparison of father-adolescent and mother-adolescent associations in characteristics of personal networks revealed, overall, that adolescents were more consonant with mothers than with fathers, particularly in the area of kinship relations. Fathers' distinctive associations with adolescents were in the area of friendship relations and concerned affective aspects of relationships. These patterns of association were not dependent on gender of adolescent. Findings are interpreted in terms of the documented role of mothers as “kinkeepers” in family affairs and in terms of emerging work suggesting the salience of interaction with fathers for children's development of sensitivity to affective cues.     

Elementary schoolchildren's perceived competence and physical activity involvement: the influence of parents' role modelling behaviours and perceptions of their child's competence

ObjectivesTo study the influence of fathers' and mothers' physical activity involvement and perceptions of their children's physical competence upon children's perceptions of competence and children's time spent in physical activity. Two forms of parental socialization influence were assessed: the direct influence of parents' actual physical activity (PA) behaviour (role modelling) on children's physical activity and the indirect influence of parents' beliefs systems about their children's PA competence on children's physical activity through children's self perceptions.MethodsLongitudinal, with data from 152 French children (M=9.5 yrs, SD=0.8 yrs) and their parents collected at two times over a 12-month period and examined through structural equation modelling (SEM).ResultsSEM indicated that mothers' role modelling behaviour had a direct effect on children's time spent in PA and that mothers' beliefs about their child's competence had an indirect effect on children's PA by influencing children's perceived competence which, in turn, contributed to children's level of physical activity involvement. Fathers' beliefs directly influenced their child's PA as did the children's own self-perceptions of competence.ConclusionsParents can affect their children's PA involvement in direct and indirect manners through their role modelling of physical activity and through their beliefs about their child's competence. Furthermore, the influence of fathers and mothers may be manifested in different ways. Father and mother could influence their child's PA by different processes.     

Satisfaction with Parenting: A Comparison Between Adolescent Mothers and Fathers

In this study we compared adolescent mothers and the fathers of their infants to examine levels of and predictors of parenting satisfaction. Participants were 41 adolescent mothers who were contacted through alternative school programs and the fathers of their infants. Not all of the fathers were adolescents. The sample was racially diverse (White, Black, Native American, and Hispanic). Correlation and t test analyses were conducted and those variables that were significantly correlated with parenting satisfaction were used in regression analyses. Mothers' parenting satisfaction and paternal control scores were higher than fathers' scores. Self-esteem, age at the baby's birth, and social support satisfaction significantly predicted parenting satisfaction for fathers, whereas only self-esteem and social support satisfaction did so for mothers.     

Attentiveness of mothers and fathers to their baby's cries

Thirty-two mother-father-infant triads participated in a study to examine whether parents' responsiveness to their own infant's distress was affected by the infant's birth order and gender. After separating from their 10- to 11-month-old baby, one parent from each family (16 mothers and 16 fathers) was selected to hear cries that were attributed to the child. Consistent with previous findings regarding physiological reactions to crying and observations of caretaking behavior, first-time parents gave quicker and more frequent attention to their infants than did multiporous parents. Speedy intervention was related to the amount of caretaking responsibilities that parents reported they assumed and to the age at which parents believed that their infant first recognized them. The results demonstrate the importance of caretaking for promoting parental sensitivity to infant signals.     

Observer Influences on Fathers and Mothers: An Experimental Manipulation of the Structure and Function of Parent – Infant Conversation

From studies over the past 20 years four contrasting hypotheses can be made about the nature of parent–infant communication: (1) mothers and fathers display similar skills to their infants and do not exert a differential influence on their development; (2) fathers are less sympathetic to their infants' level of development and therefore inadvertently stretch the child's development more than mothers; (3) both parents differentially socialize their sons' and daughters' early communicative skills; (4) any apparent differences between parents reflect their expectations about being observed. To examine these hypotheses together, this experiment records the communication of 10 mother–infant and 10 father–infant dyads in two conditions: when an observer was present or absent. The analysis revealed two patterns. Firstly, in keeping with most research on parent–child communication, mothers and fathers both simplified their speech to their infants in similar ways. Secondly, both the structure and function of parental communication showed differences between the two conditions and many of these differences were moderated by interactions between condition and sex of parent or child. The data thus provide more support for the first and fourth hypotheses cited above. It is suggested that analyses of parent–infant interaction should move away from simple assumptions about parental ‘influences’ upon children's development to consider the subtleties of different parental styles in different settings.     

The Chances for Children Teen Parent–Infant Project: Results of a pilot intervention for teen mothers and their infants in inner city high schools

Adolescent motherhood poses serious challenges to mothers, to infants, and ultimately to society, particularly if the teen mother is part of a minority population living in an urban environment. This study examines the effects of a treatment intervention targeting low‐income, high‐risk teen mothers and their infants in the context of public high schools where daycare is available onsite. Our findings confirm the initial hypothesis that mothers who received intervention would improve their interactions with their infants in the areas of responsiveness, affective availability, and directiveness. In addition, infants in the treatment group were found to increase their interest in mother, respond more positively to physical contact, and improve their general emotional tone, which the comparison infants did not. Importantly, these findings remain even within the subset of mothers who scored above the clinical cutoff for depression on the Center for Epidemiological Studies‐Depression Scale (CES‐D; L. Radloff, 1977), confirming that it is possible to improve mother–infant interaction without altering the mother's underlying depression. The implications of these findings are significant both because it is more difficult and requires more time to alter maternal depression than maternal behavior and because maternal depression has been found to have such devastating effects on infants.     

When Mothers’ Work Matters for Youths’ Daily Time Use: Implications of Evening and Weekend Shifts

Drawing upon the work-home resources model, this study examined the implications of mothers’ evening and weekend shifts for youths’ time with mother, alone, and hanging out with peers unsupervised, with attention to both the amount and day-to-day consistency of time use. Data came from 173 mothers who worked in the long-term care industry and their youths who provided daily diaries. Multilevel modeling revealed that youths whose mothers worked more evening shifts on average spent less time with their mothers compared to youths whose mothers worked fewer evening shifts. Youths whose mothers worked more weekend shifts, however, spent more time with their mothers and exhibited less consistency in their time in all three activity domains compared to youths whose mothers worked fewer weekend shifts. Girls, not boys, spent less time alone on days when mothers worked weekend shifts than on days with standard shifts. Older but not younger adolescents spent more time hanging out with friends on evening and weekend shift days, and their unsupervised peer time was less consistent across days when mothers worked more evening shifts. These effects adjusted for sociodemographic and day characteristics, including school day, number of children in the household, mothers’ marital status and work hours, and time with fathers. Our results illuminate the importance of the timing and day of mothers’ work for youths’ daily activities. Future interventions should consider how to increase mothers’ resources to deal with constraints on parenting due to their work during nonstandard hours, with attention to child gender and age.