1. University of Manchester Lancaster University Conference Centre
What makes fathers involved in their children’s care? Analysing paternal involvement from nine months to seven years post-birth
Dr Helen Norman
University of Manchester
1st November 2017
‘Fathers, family and gender in the workplace: pursuing pathways to research impact and engagement’
Lancaster University Conference Centre

2. Presentation outline The gender division of labour in the UK
Research Questions
Data and methods
Results: which fathers are the most involved?
Conclusions and policy implications
Pathways to Impact?

3. 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.
Women usually switch to part-time employment after having children.
65% of mothers with dependent children (aged 3-4) employed (2017); 59% = 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.

4. What is paternal involvement?
Defined as a father who participates in the nurturing tasks involved in the ‘taking care of’ children.
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 years old?
Do the variables which influence fathers to be involved change as a child gets older?
Does a father’s childcare behaviour in the first year of a child’s life affect how involved he is when the child is older?

5. 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
The sample was filtered to include the same heterosexual couples, intact over all five sweeps of data (n=5,882)

6. MCS variable:
How often does the father….
Age
<1 3 5 7
… 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?
… 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?

7. 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 composite measures
Dependent variables (i.e. composite measures):
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

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

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

10. 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 equally in 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

11. 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

12. 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 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:
URL:

13. Potential Impact: why is the research important?
Our findings will…
Inform policy debates concerning parenting, child wellbeing and development, the rights and responsibilities of fathers and ‘work-life balance’.
Contribute to employment policy and workplace innovations by generating new knowledge about how men and women’s employment hours and schedules can enable or hinder father’s involvement at home
Help employers to provide practical innovations to facilitate work-family reconciliation

14. Pathway to Impact: devised with Working Families
Policy briefings and blogs
Working Families and
Related briefings for WF that extend beyond the immediate project focus (profile building)
Planned presentations at non-academic events (as well as academic dissemination plans)
Working Families programme of employer-led and policy focused events (breakfast briefings, conferences, etc.)
Dissemination beyond WF to other key organisations and our networks e.g. Equality and Human Rights Commission, TUC, European Commission’s European Network of Experts on Gender Equality, Eurofound
Press releases, with support from the University of Manchester’s Press Office
Articles for media (e.g. The Guardian?)

15. References
Project URL:
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
Norman, H. and Fagan, C. (2017) What makes fathers involved in their children’s upbringing? Working Families Work Flex Blog, 20 January 2017:
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: 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,
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.