1. Developing a measure of paternal involvement in childcare
Dr Helen Norman and Professor Mark Elliot
University of Manchester, UK
31 August 2017
13th Conference of the European Sociological Association: (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities
Athens, Greece, 29 August - 01 September 2017

2. Presentation outline What is ‘paternal involvement’?
How do we develop measures?
Data and Methods
Deriving measure(s):
Through factor analysis
Through qualitative experiments with fathers
Summary and conclusions

3. What is paternal involvement?
We define an ‘involved father’ as one who participates in the nurturing tasks involved in the ‘taking care of’ children.
We measure it as roughly sharing childcare with a partner or doing the most.
Although material provision (i.e. ‘breadwinning’) is an important part of parenting, it is an activity distinct from ‘involved fathering’ for this study.

4. How can we develop quantitative measure(s) of paternal involvement in childcare?
To answer this research question, we carried out two stages of (quantitative and qualitative) work:
Stage 1: Deriving quantitative measure(s) through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis
Stage 2: Validating the measure(s) through ‘qualitative experiments’ with fathers

5. Data: 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
There are 30 variables measuring fathers’ absolute childcare involvement

6. How often does the father…. Age 1 3 5 7 11
MCS variable:
How often does the father….
Age 1 3 5 7 11
… change the baby’s nappy? X
… feed the baby?
… get up in the night for the baby?
… look after the baby/child on his own?  X
… read to the child?
… play with the child?
… get the child ready for bed?
…tell stories to the child not from a book?
…play music, listen to music, sing songs or nursery rhymes, dance or do other musical activities with the child?
…draw, paint or make things with the child?
…play sports or physically active games outdoors or indoors with the child?
…play with toys or games indoors with the child?
…take the child to the park or to an outdoor playground?
…talk to the child about things that are important to him/her?

7. Method: Factor Analysis
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
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA):
to explore the structure of the data
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA):
To verify the factor structure produced from the EFA
To test a theory or hypothesis about how the variables should be organised

8. How often does the father…. Age 1 3 5 7 11
MCS variable:
How often does the father….
Age 1 3 5 7 11
… change the baby’s diaper? X
… feed the baby?
… get up in the night for the baby?
… look after the baby/child on his own?
… read to the child?
… play with the child?
… get the child ready for bed?
…tell stories to the child not from a book?
…play music, listen to music, sing songs or nursery rhymes, dance or do other musical activities with the child?
…draw, paint or make things with the child?
…play sports or physically active games outdoors or indoors with the child?
…play with toys or games indoors with the child?
…take the child to the park or to an outdoor playground?
…talk to the child about things that are important to him/her?

9. 1. Deriving measures of paternal involvement (PI): results of the factor analysis
9 mths PI
3 years PI
5 years PI
7 years PI
11 years
Play
Look
Bed
Read
Feed
Read
Toys
Look
Bed
Night
Look
Look
Game
Talk
Nappy
Story
look
Bed
Paint
Music
Read
Paint
Music
Story
Toys
Park
Game
Game
Toys
Park

10. Paternal involvement at age 5
5 years
Set 3
Set 1
Set 2
Read
Bed
Look
Story
Music
Paint
Park
Toys
Game

11. Do these measures make sense?
Do our measures really reflect what ‘involved’ fathers do?
Are the variables organised in the correct way?
What are the other important ‘core’ tasks that are missing?
Solution: small-scale qualitative study with fathers to assess whether the measures produced make sense conceptually

12. 2: qualitative experiments
Participants
30 fathers (all heterosexual, aged from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. 70% White British/Irish; 30% BME)
Card sort + cognitive interview
All 30 variables were written onto individual cards (e.g. feeding at 9 months; getting child ready for bed at age 3 etc).
Participants were asked to sort the cards into categories of ‘things fathers do with or for their children’ and describe their thought processes whilst doing so.
Participants were asked to repeat the exercise up to five times.
Short semi-structured interview
Participants were asked about any core tasks that were missing, and what being an ‘involved’ father meant to them.

13. Results: how were activities grouped?
50% of fathers grouped childcare activities by age (validating our statistical measure).
50% of fathers grouped activities by ‘type’ of activity e.g.
Core care activities (e.g. looking after child on own, changing diapers, getting up in the night, feeding the child, getting child ready for bed)
‘Bonus’ activities (e.g. reading, telling stories, taking child to park, playing with toys and games, playing sports, doing musical activities, drawing and painting)
Some fathers sub-divided the ‘bonus’ activities into learning activities (e.g. reading), fun/physical activities (e.g. play, going to the park) and creative activities (e.g. music, drawing)
Fathers picked out ‘talking to the child about things that are important at age 11’ as separate to the other activities

14. Summary and conclusions
Paternal involvement (PI) is a complex term, which makes deriving a quantitative measure (over time) tricky!
The quantitative (factor) analysis shows that one way of measuring PI is by deriving measures according to the age of the child
The qualitative (experiments) analysis partially corroborates this – but also highlights other ways in which PI can be measured.
This triangulation of research methods improves the validity and reliability of our quantitative measures but also highlights its limitations.

15. Which fathers are involved in looking after their children
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 July 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:
URL:

16. References Key references
Project URL: fathers/
Norman, H., Elliot, M. (2015) : Measuring paternal involvement in childcare and housework, Sociological Research Online, 20(2), [7]
Norman, H. (2015): Paternal involvement in childcare: how can it be classified and what are the key influences?, Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(3) (fast track online version: 2015; printed version: March 2017)
Other related references:
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., 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,