Maternal employment and development of the father-infant relationship in the first year

This study investigated links between maternal employment and fathers' pare nting quality when their infants were 4 and 12 months old. Sixty-three fath ers were videotaped interacting with their infants and completed questionna ires regarding their involvement in caregiving, parenting stress, and marit al quality, and mothers reported on children's temperament. Fathers whose w ives either did not work outside the home or worked part time were more sen sitive and responsive to their children when they were more involved in car egiving; men whose wives worked full time exhibited more negative affect an d behavior when they participated more in child care. Men whose wives were not employed also were more positive in their interactions when they were h appier with their marriage, whereas men whose wives worked either part time or full time exhibited a negative relation between parenting behavior and marital quality. Maternal work circumstances were not related to fathers' p arenting stress; rather, marital quality and child temperament predicted pa renting stress at 4 and 12 months for all fathers.