Shared parenting in Australia? : Examining the involvement of men and women in childrearing

Abstract

Studies published in the 1980s and 1990s on parenting note an increase in scholarship focusing on paternal involvement. Many of these studies centre on fathers alone, rather than on the intra-household division of labour between mothers and fathers. Further, the bulk of this research has been conducted in countries other than Australia. Few surveybased investigations have explored the factors associated with men's and women's childrearing behaviour. Data used to investigate the many components of parenting was from three main sources. Published national data from census and labour force surveys illustrate the major trends in fertility and with whom children live. This information is supplemented by the first wave of a national longitudinal survey, Negotiating the Lifecourse (NLC). These sources are further used to examine the involvement of parents in the paid labour force, and to compare the work situations of parents and non-parents. More detailed information on parents' situations was collected in a survey designed specifically for this study entitled the Parenting Survey 1999. The sample was drawn from NLC respondents, and obtains information on parental identity, childrearing tasks and parenting styles. A set of factors is associated with higher levels of parental involvement for men. These factors were found to be important in a number of analyses of parenting. Men who report higher levels of investment in parenting, whose partner is attached to the labour force, and age of the child are related to many childrearing measures. Further, men's ability to integrate other components of their lives (such as work and friends) is related to their use of authoritative parenting styles. For women factors such as attachment to the labour force, education and income are related to childrearing tasks, while women's labour force participation is related to their use of authoritative parenting styles. The relationship between work and childrearing is found to be a complicated one, with women's employment being associated with higher levels of involvement in childrearing for men and lower levels for women. However, women who work are more likely to use authoritative parenting styles, which have been linked to positive child development. It is suggested that the relationship between employment and childrearing be examined in greater detail. There are many questions that arise on the topics addressed in this research. These include the level of underreporting of fertility by men, the time spent in different household types by parents and whether younger cohorts are facing new families or no families. In order to address these questions it is necessary to use longitudinal data in analysing topics associated with parental and family research.