Fathering over time: What makes the difference?

This article examines how much fathers participate in child care, an import ant component of domestic duties, and factors related to it. It has the adv antage of longitudinal data, so that it is possible to look at changes in f athers' participation and factors affecting changes and continuities over t ime. The data come from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1993 National Surveys of Fam ilies and Households. The sample is restricted to White, two-parent familie s with at least one child younger than 5 years of age at the time of the fi rst survey. The analyses control for the number of children and the gender of the child for whom there is fathering information. Based on prior theori es and research, the study variables related to fathers' child care include performance of household tasks, their marital quality, gender tale ideolog ies, perceptions of the fairness of the division of domestic label; and the mothers' childcare hours. The labor-force variables are the husbands' and wives' hours of paid employment, as well as the earned incomes of husbands and wives. The findings indicate that hours on the job keep some men from a ctive fathering, but if they begin taking care of young children, a continu ing pattern is established. Mothers' child-care hours are positively relate d to fathers' child care, and fathers do more with sons. The discussion pla ces the findings in theoretical context.