Gender-Based Attitudes and Father Involvement: Amount, Assessment, and Desires for More

Transcription

1 JENNIFER K. KARRE*, PH.D. Gender-Based Attitudes and Father Involvement: Amount, Assessment, and Desires for More In this article, structural equation modeling is used to examine direct and indirect paths between gender-based attitudes, how much fathers were involved in their children s lives, how much more or less they would have liked to have been involved, and their perceptions of how good of a job they did as a father. Qualitative data are used to help contextualize the quantitative data. Sixty-eight fathers of emerging adults participated. As hypothesized, more egalitarian attitudes are associated with more involvement, which is in turn related to more favorable perceptions of how good of a job they think they did as a father. Less egalitarian attitudes are associated with less involvement, which is in turn related to fathers reporting that they would have liked to have been more involved in their children s lives. Keywords: fathers, parenting, gender-based attitudes It has been clear since Parke and Sawin s (1976) early work on father-infant involvement that fathers can be just as nurturant and competent in caregiving tasks as mothers. In subsequent years, more research has emerged to support this early finding (Crawley & Sherrod, 1984; Fagerskiold, 2008; Golinkoff & Ames, 1979; Holland, 1995; Keller, Hildebrandt, & Richards, 1985; Lewis et al., 1996; Storey, Walsh, Quinton, & Wynne-Edwards, 2000). Although some have reported contrasting results (for example, Donate-Bartfield & Passman, 1985), the preponderance of evidence supports Parke and Sawin. Furthermore, when results are in contrast to Park and Sawin, it is possible that fathers are less involved than mothers due to social factors, not biological factors (Lamb & Lewis, 2010). For example, the sheer amount of time that mothers typically spend with their child may give them more experience, thus giving the erroneous impression that they are naturally better at caregiving tasks. Alternatively, mothers may engage in gatekeeping behaviors that prevent fathers from engaging in caregiving. Although fathers are capable, there is still wide variability in the extent to which fathers * The Pennsylvania State University. Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to the author, The Pennsylvania State University, 402 Marion Place, University Park, PA jxk79@psu.edu FATHERING, VOL. 13, NO. 3, WINTER 2015/2016, PP by The Men s Studies Press, LLC. All rights reserved. fth /$15.00 DOI: /fth eissn/ x 231

2 KARRE engage in these nurturant caregiving activities. Fathers beliefs about their role as father may vary widely (Parke, 1996). Attitudes, motivations, relationships with family of origin, relationship with spouse, and gender role attitudes may influence these beliefs. Beliefs and attitudes are then related to father involvement (Bronte-Tinkew, Carrano & Guzman, 2006), influencing whether fathers engage in nurturing behaviors. Ethnicity, marital status, educational status, and income may also influence the extent to which fathers feel they are important to child development (Bronte-Tinkew et al.). Some attitudes and beliefs are also associated with these demographic variables. For example, traditional gender-based attitudes towards domestic labor are less likely in higher-income families, especially when women have higher earning power (Doucet, 2013). Gender-based attitudes are also related to nurturing behaviors (Hofferth, 2003; Rina & Feinberg, 2012; Updegraff, Perez-Brena, Baril, McHale & Umana-Taylor, 2012). If fathers believe that child-rearing should be done by mothers and not fathers, they may not engage in nurturing behavior towards their children. Gender-based attitudes have been of interest in the feminist literature for several decades; however, the relation between gender-based attitudes and fatherhood has, with few exceptions, only recently come to the fore (Doucet, 2013). A growing body of literature examines the relation between gender-based attitudes and men s involvement in domestic labor, including child-rearing behaviors. Research has identified a direct association between fathers egalitarian attitudes and more involvement in child-rearing (Rina & Feinberg, 2012; Updegraff et al., 2012) and more paternal warmth (Hofferth, 2003). Although gender-based attitudes have changed over time (i.e., across cohorts or generations), they are relatively stable throughout the lifespan, with certain life events affecting these attitudes (Fan & Marini, 2000). For men, the events that tend to influence gender-based attitudes are education and parenthood. Education tends to increase egalitarian attitudes while the birth of a child tends to increase traditional attitudes. Although the literature on gender-based attitudes and fathers behaviors is growing, gaps still exist. Research has yet to examine the way in which gender-based attitudes are related not only to how much fathers are involved in their children s lives, but their assessment of their performance as a father, and how much more or less they wish they would have been involved. Subjective ratings of father involvement can tap into a different construct than objective ratings. Asking how involved fathers were assesses how much time fathers spent doing certain activities. A subjective measure will tap into how well fathers felt they did, or the quality of that involvement. A father may spend a lot of time helping his child with his or her homework, for example, but may not feel like he was doing a good job at it because he was frequently impatient with his child. Assessing fathers retrospective thoughts at the end of formal child-rearing may be a powerful tool in the systematic analysis of fathering behavior. Reflecting back on the total formal child-rearing time and asking what fathers would have liked to do differently may provide insight into fathers lives. This study will examine how gender-based attitudes are related to three different conceptualizations of father involvement and how those conceptualizations of father involvement are related to each other. PRESENT STUDY In the present study, it was hypothesized that fathers gender role attitudes would be related to (1) how much they were involved in their children s lives; (2) how good of a job they felt 232

3 GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND FATHER INVOLVEMENT they did as a father; and (3) how much more or less they would have liked to be involved in their children s lives. A path analysis with two main paths was hypothesized. One path suggests that the more egalitarian fathers are, the more involved they are with their children, and in turn, the better job they think they did as a father. The other path suggests that the more egalitarian fathers are, the more involved they are, and in turn, the more satisfied they are with the amount they were involved (i.e., they do not report wishing they had been more or less involved). In addition, the path between how much more or less fathers wish they would have been involved to the fathers appraisal of how good of a job they did was estimated. It could be that fathers who are satisfied with their amount of involvement (that is, they do not wish they had been more or less involved) would appraise themselves as having done a good job at being a father. Based on previous literature (Bronte-Tinkew et al., 2006; Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, & Killian, 1999) and bivariate correlations (Table 1), three variables were added as control variables: family income, minority status, and whether or not the mother worked outside the home. Bronte-Tinkew et al. found that fathers beliefs about how important they are to child development is related to ethnicity and income. These beliefs are then related to engagement. Gottfried et al. found that mothers employment is related to father involvement with their children. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the association between the variables and to test how well the model fit the data. Figure 1 shows the hypothesized model. Sample METHOD Participants were 68 fathers of college students who attended a large Midwestern university. Fathers were years old (mean = 51; SD = 5.30). Fathers children were years old (mean = 19; SD = 1.50) and were 63% female. Fathers were African-American (4%), Asian-American (3%), European-American (85%), Latino (4%), and bi- or multiracial (3%). Fifty percent of participants had a household income of over $95,000; 21% had an income of $75,000 95,000; 13% had an income of $55,000 75,000; 12% had an income of $35,000 55,000; and 4% had an income of less than $35,000. Fifty-four percent Figure 1. Hypothesized model of gender-based attitudes and father involvement. 233

4 KARRE Table 1 Bivariate Correlations and Descriptive Statistics Variable How much involved - 2. How good of a job.839 *** - 3. How much more or less ** * - 4. Egalitarian attitudes.308 ** * - 5. Mother work.275 * * - 6. Family income * **.283 * Minority status ** ** *** - Mean SD Range Skew Kurtosis *p <.05. **p <.01. ***p <.001. of fathers finished a 4-year college degree or more; 28% had some college or a 2-year degree; 16% finished high school; and 2% completed some high school. Most fathers were currently married (88%). Eighty-five percent of adolescents lived with their mother and father while in high school; 7% primarily lived with their mother; 4% primarily lived with their father; 3% lived with both their mother and father, but in separate households. Most mothers worked outside the home when their child was in high school: 54% worked full time and 24% worked part time. Four fathers (6%) were stay-at-home dads. Measures Control Variables. Three control variables were included. Family income was an ordinal scale with the response options cited above. Due to the small number of minority participants, ethnicity was a dichotomous option of European-American or non-european-american. The measure of whether the child s mother worked outside the home when the child was in high school was an ordinal scale: did not work, worked part-time, worked full-time. Father Involvement. The Inventory of Father Involvement measured fathers perception of how good of a job they did as a father (Hawkins et al., 2002). This 25-item assessment taps into behavioral, cognitive, and affective aspect of fathering. One developmentally inappropriate item was dropped. The total scale score was used in this investigation and includes all nine of the scale s subscales: discipline and teaching responsibility (e.g., encouraging your child to do his/her chores), school encouragement (e.g., encouraging your child to succeed in school), mother support (e.g., giving your child s mother encouragement and emotional support), providing (e.g., providing your child s basic needs), time and talking together (e.g., spending time with your child doing things they like to do), praise and affec- 234

5 GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND FATHER INVOLVEMENT tion (e.g., praising your child for something he/she has done well), developing talents and future concerns (e.g., planning for your child s future), reading and homework support (e.g., helping your child with his/her homework), and attentiveness (e.g., knowing where your child went and what he/she did with their friends). Fathers were asked to specifically think about their involvement with their child when their child was in high school. For most fathers (74%) this was about six months prior to when they filled out the survey. Fathers rated how good of a job they felt they did on each item. Items were rated on a 5-point scale from very poor to excellent. Hawkins et al. found that the measure had good internal consistency, face validity, and construct validity. For the current sample, the internal consistency for this scale was good (α =.90). Two adaptations to the Inventory of Father Involvement were made. One adaptation asked how much the father was involved on each item. Items were rated on a 5-point scale from not involved to very involved. The second adaptation asked how much more or less the father would have liked to be involved on each item. Items were rated on a 5-point scale from less (0) to the same (2) to more (4). Internal consistencies were good (α =.93 and α =.96, respectively). Egalitarian attitudes. The Gender-based Attitudes Towards Marital Roles scale measured egalitarian attitudes (Hoffman & Kloska, 1995). This 6-item measure taps into the division of labor and power. The measure has good reliability with mothers and fathers and good construct validity (Hoffman & Kloska). Items were rated on a 4-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Examples of items include, a man should help in the house, but housework and child care should mainly be a women s job; and men should make the really important decisions in the family. High scores on this scale indicate that a father has more egalitarian attitudes; low scores on this scale indicate that a father has less egalitarian attitudes (i.e., more traditional attitudes). For this sample, the Cronbach s alpha was good (α =.88). Procedures As part of a larger study, college students were recruited from introductory psychology courses. Once these participants had completed their survey, they were asked whether researchers could have their permission to send their father a questionnaire. If they agreed, they provided their father s name and address. One hundred and twenty-one (i.e., 22% of the total sample) students gave us permission to send a questionnaire to their father. Of those 121 questionnaires that were sent, 79 (65%) were returned. Postage paid envelopes were provided, and reminders and replacement questionnaires were also sent if the original questionnaires were not returned. Small tokens of appreciation with the university logo were sent with the original questionnaire. One questionnaire was excluded from analyses due to a predetermined child age cutoff of 24 years. Five participants had missing data on the main variables of interest; an additional five participants had missing data on the control variables. Because AMOS requires complete data to estimate indirect paths, those data were also excluded. Therefore, 68 fathers were included in these analyses. 235

6 KARRE DATA ANALYSIS Quantitative Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted using AMOS 21. Although the sample size was relatively small for SEM, Bentler and Chou (1987) suggest that a sample size to free parameter ratio can be as low as 5:1. For this analysis, 16 parameters were estimated in the initial model and 14 were estimated in the final model. Thus, the initial model was just above 4:1; the final model was nearly 5:1. This sample size is slightly less than ideal and all results should be considered preliminary. However, this study is strengthened by the interpretation of CFI and TLI for model fit. Both the CFI and TLI are less affected by sample size than other fit indices (Hu & Bentler, 1998). To test the indirect effects, bootstrap methods were performed using bias corrected confidence intervals (MacKinnon, Lockwood & Williams, 2004). Qualitative Fathers and adolescents were given the opportunity to write in any additional comments they had about being a father (fathers) or about their father (adolescents). Thirty-one fathers wrote additional comments. Twenty-four adolescents with fathers who also completed questionnaires wrote in additional comments. The goal of the qualitative portion of this investigation was to further describe the quantitative results. Specific coding categories were not created before the coding procedures. Codes were generated by having coders read each response by fathers and adolescents and identify themes that were present in the responses. Coders then met to discuss the themes and decide on mutually exclusive codes. Operational definitions of the codes were developed. Twenty-two codes were generated; four codes were common to both fathers and adolescents. Thus, there were 18 unique codes. Two raters assigned codes to each response. Each response could have multiple codes. Thirteen of the 22 codes had Cohen s kappas above.80; eight of the codes had Cohen s kappas of greater than or equal to.65, which is acceptable; one code had a Cohen s kappa of less than.65. Disagreements between coders were discussed until codes were agreed upon. Nine codes were relevant to this investigation. Six participants were removed from the data set, as they had missing data on one or more of the quantitative variables. Thus, the qualitative sample included 28 fathers and 21 adolescents. Ten of the fathers and adolescents originated from the same family. Thus, the sample represented 39 families. RESULTS Quantitative Bivariate correlations and descriptive statistics are listed in Table 1. One descriptive statistic that should be noted is the scale of how much more or less the father would have liked to be involved. On a scale where 0 = less, 2 = the same, and 4 = more, only one father reported that he would have liked to have been involved less (i.e., 1.84), four fathers reported that they would have liked to be involved the same amount (i.e., 2), and the rest reported 236

7 GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND FATHER INVOLVEMENT wanting to be involved more (i.e., ). Thus, the variable should be thought of as the extent to which fathers wished they would have been more involved. Although primarily using the upper half of this scale, the variable is normally distributed. In retrospect, it makes sense that fathers would, overall, not report wanting to be involved with their child less than they were. Although the shifted distribution should not affect the overall results, the author would suggest using only the more side of the scale in the future. Although the three father involvement variables were significantly correlated, two of the three are only moderately correlated (r = -.323; r = -.244). How much fathers were involved and how good of a job fathers thought they did was, however, highly correlated (r =.839). These three variables, although related, are statistically and conceptually different. How much a father was involved is an objective assessment of how much the father was involved in a specific behavior. How good of a job is a subjective rating of a father s performance on a particular behavior. How much more a father would have liked to have been involved speaks to regrets or things that a father would do differently if he had it to do over again. For example, one father rated himself as a three on a question asking how involved he was in teaching his child to follow rules at school. He rated himself as a two on how good of a job he did teaching his child to follow rules at school. He marked a four for how much more he would have liked to be involved in teaching his child to follow rules at school. The hypothesized model fit the data well on all indices except RMSEA, which still fell below the poor fit cutoff (TLI =.922; CFI =.955; RMSEA =.092). However, the 90% confidence interval for RMSEA (CI =.000,.168) suggest that this index should not be interpreted (Kenny, Kaniskan, & McCoach, 2015). Two of the paths were non-significant. The path from how much more or less fathers wanted to be involved to how good a job they thought they did was removed due to non-significance, as was the path from family income to how much more or less fathers wanted to be involved. After the removal of the two paths, the model fit the data well (TLI =.929; CFI =.952). Again, the RMSEA was below the poor fit cutoff (RMSEA =.089), but as before, the confidence interval (CI =.000,.160) suggests that this index should not be interpreted. All remaining paths were significant. See Figure 2 for the final model. There was a positive relation between egalitarian attitudes and amount of involvement (ß =.247, p =.03), as well as between amount of in- Figure 2. Final model of gender-based attitudes and father involvement. Note: All estimates are standardized. *p <.05 ***p <

8 KARRE volvement and fathers perceptions of how good a job he did (ß =.851, p <.001). The standardized indirect effect of egalitarian attitudes on how good a job the father perceived that he did was.210 (p =.02). That is, fathers with more egalitarian attitudes were more involved, and, in turn, had better perceptions of how good of a job they did. Conversely, fathers with less egalitarian attitudes (i.e., more traditional) were less involved, and, in turn, had worse perceptions of how good of a job they did. There was an inverse association between amount of involvement and how much more or less fathers would have wanted to be involved (ß = -.368, p <.001). The indirect effect of egalitarian attitudes on how much more or less fathers would have wanted to be involved was (p =.05). Thus, fathers with more egalitarian attitudes were more involved, and, in turn, indicted that they were more satisfied with how much they were involved (i.e., did not wish they had been more involved). Conversely, fathers with less egalitarian attitudes were less involved, and, in turn, wished they had been more involved. Qualitative Maternal gatekeeping. Two fathers discussed maternal gatekeeping. One of the fathers scored above the mean on the measure of gender-based attitudes, indicating he was more egalitarian. One father scored below the mean on the measure of gender-based attitudes, indicating he was less egalitarian. The less egalitarian father discussed how things changed after his divorce: Before I filed for divorce my ex always told me I was a good father, loving and involved. After words [sic] my kids have told me that I was never there for them. I have to told them that they need to stop listening to my ex or her relatives and think about the past. I have pointed out to both of them some of the things that we did together as a family. Work. Nine fathers and adolescents discussed the father s work. One adolescent and one father were from the same family, thus eight families were represented. Four of the fathers were more egalitarian; four of the fathers were less egalitarian. One less egalitarian father was in the military, which included 2½ tours in Iraq. Another less egalitarian father traveled during the week for work, he travels with his work and came home on the weekends depending how far the drive. So he cannot always be here or do certain things with me due to his occupation. The more egalitarian fathers and adolescents of fathers discussed the amount of time spent at work and commuting, the father working at night and sleeping during the day, and trying to balance raising children and a demanding job. External factors. Eight fathers and adolescents discuss external factors that affected the father-child relationship. Five of the fathers had less egalitarian attitudes. Three of the five fathers or adolescents of fathers with less egalitarian attitudes mentioned that the mother had mental illnesses. Another adolescent mentioned that her mother was ill and her sister had issues. The fifth father mentioned that his ex-wife s relatives interfered with his relationship with his children, her relatives are always making me out to be the bad guy. Of the three fathers who discussed external factors and had more egalitarian attitudes, one father discussed how being blind affected his relationship with his daughter. One ado- 238

9 GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND FATHER INVOLVEMENT lescent mentioned his father s stress. One father discussed how his own parents treated him: My parents treated me like I was a burden, and constantly destroyed my self-esteem. I vowed I would be the opposite as a parent. Divorce. Three fathers and two adolescents discussed divorce. Four families were represented as one father response and one adolescent response were from the same family. Three of the responses came from fathers or adolescents with fathers with less egalitarian attitudes. One of the adolescents who mentioned divorce had a father who was more egalitarian. Inter-parental conflict. Three fathers discussed inter-parental conflict. Two of the three fathers were less egalitarian. Both of these fathers discussed conflict in the context of divorce. The father with more egalitarian attitudes discussed conflicting values with his partner, Jane was a great kid my wife had different values so she was reared by her and I really had no say so w/o [sic] a huge battle. Beliefs and values. Eleven fathers and adolescents discussed their or their father s beliefs and values as they related to raising their children. Five of these fathers were more egalitarian; six of the fathers or adolescents fathers were less egalitarian. One more egalitarian father said, I always believed children learn from observation and I tried to set a good example. Another more egalitarian father said, During high school years I have always told my children I am not your friend I am your father. Similarly, one less egalitarian father said, Children need parents not buddies. Importance of fathers. Two fathers who were more egalitarian discussed the importance of fathers. One father stated, Fathers are very important to any child. The more you are involved the more the child reacts to your actions. Regret. Seven fathers discussed regrets or feelings of failure they had regarding their relationship with their child. Five of these seven fathers were more egalitarian; two were less egalitarian. One more egalitarian father simply stated, Could have done better. One of the less egalitarian fathers said, Some things I wish I would have done different and be able to talk better or relate more. Self-praise. Four fathers praised their own fathering behavior. Three fathers had less egalitarian attitudes; one father had more egalitarian attitudes. One less egalitarian father said, Being Italian I expressed love, responsibilities, work, love [sic], respect, and to help people out in need, I think I did a great job! Less egalitarian but would have liked to have been more involved. Nineteen fathers had scores below the mean on egalitarianism and above the mean on whether they would have liked to be more involved. Nine of these fathers or their adolescents had qualitative data; seven had codes relevant to this investigation. Three fathers and one adolescent mentioned beliefs and values as they related to raising children. One father and two adolescents discussed work. Two fathers praised their own fathering behavior. One father discussed each of the following: external factors (i.e., the adolescent s mother s mental illness), divorce, inter-parental conflict, and regret. 239

10 KARRE It should also be noted that of the fathers with scores below the mean on egalitarianism and above the mean on wishing they had been more involved, seven of the mothers did not work, four of the mothers worked part-time, and eight of the mothers worked full-time. Seventeen of the fathers were married to their child s mother. Two were divorced; one father was a resident father while one father was a non-resident father. DISCUSSION This investigation suggests that the relation between gender-based attitudes and father involvement is complex. As expected, an association between gender-based attitudes and how much fathers are involved in the rearing of their children was replicated. The more egalitarian attitudes the father holds, the more involved he is. Also as expected, there is an association between how much a father is involved and his perception of how good of a job he did. The more a father is involved, the more he thinks he did a good job. This study also demonstrates an indirect relation between gender-based attitudes and a father s perception of how good of a job he did, through the amount the father was involved. The relationship between gender-based attitudes and the amount that fathers are involved is well-established (Rina & Feinberg, 2012; Updegraff et al., 2012). This study has expanded upon that by demonstrating an association between how much fathers are involved and their evaluation of their performance as a father (i.e., how good of a job they thought they did). This study has also established an association between egalitarian attitudes and fathers evaluation of how good of a job they did. The model becomes complex when examining the relation between gender-based attitudes, amount of involvement, and how much more or less fathers wanted to be involved in their child s life. The model suggests that when fathers have more traditional gender role attitudes, they are involved less in the rearing of their children. This is as would be expected from the literature (Rina & Feinberg, 2012; Updegraff et al., 2012). However, when they are involved less in the rearing of their children, they report wanting to have been more involved in their child s life. That is, they adhere to traditional gender norms, are less involved in child-rearing, but at the same time wish they would have been more involved in their child s life. This seeming paradox could be due to several factors. Gender-based attitudes might be related to work schedules or other work-related obstacles to father involvement. The qualitative data in this investigation is consistent with McGill (2014), suggesting that work hours affect traditional fathers time spent with their children, but not egalitarian fathers. However, what is still unclear is why fathers endorse both traditional attitudes and a desire to have spent more time with their child, when those attitudes are directly related to how much time they spent with their child. It could be that fathers with traditional attitudes strongly believe that fathers should work while mothers should not work and stay home with the children. These fathers may feel pressure to work more to ensure that their children are provided for, which may compromise the time they spend with their children. This is consistent with qualitative data suggesting that, for some families, there are strong beliefs about men working and women raising the children (Townsend, 2002). However, this does not mean that they do not want to spend time with their children, just that they have difficulty with worklife balance. However, as discussed above, in families where fathers were more traditional, but wished they had been more involved, the majority of mothers worked at least part-time. 240

11 GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND FATHER INVOLVEMENT Furthermore, more mothers worked full-time than not at all. Therefore, attitudes about mothers working are not the only factor that may be influencing these results. There are other possible reasons for the findings. It could be that fathers with jobs requiring them to be away from their family, either in distance, time, or emotionally, endorse more gender-based attitudes as a way to help cope with being away or distracted. However, that endorsement, perhaps made in a self-preservation effort, may be hiding a father s true desires to be involved with his child. Maternal gatekeeping is cited in the literature as a barrier to father involvement (e.g., Kulik & Tsoref, 2010; Zvara, Schoppe-Sullivan, & Dush, 2013). It could be that mothers are reinforcing, consciously or subconsciously, beliefs that the mother should be the primary caregiver while the father should be the primary breadwinner. Alternatively, it could be that both the father and the mother ascribe to traditional gender roles in theory, but in practice, the father really wants to be involved more in his child s life. Relatedly, there may be interparental conflict related to parenting behaviors. Inter-parental conflict may lead fathers to question their parenting behavior. This may then reinforce fathers erroneous beliefs that mothers are more capable of raising the children, which is in conflict with their desire to be involved. Additionally, it could be that communities reinforce gender norms (Doucet, 2013). Community norms of masculinity may influence how men feel they should behave with their children. As times change, and individuals desire to move beyond traditional attitudes, some men may be held back and influenced by community norms. Thus, it may be the community norm to respond and behave in a way that reflects traditional gender norms, but on an individual level, the father may want to be more involved. Future investigations into gender-based attitudes and father involvement should examine these phenomena, explicitly measuring work choices, maternal gatekeeping, inter-parental conflict about parenting, and community norms. In addition, the present study suggests that it can be valuable to not only consider the amount of involvement, but how fathers feel about that involvement, such as whether they would have liked to be involved more or their own evaluations of their performance as a father. This information can help the field obtain a broader understanding of fathers feelings about their own involvement. A deeper understanding both by researchers and fathers themselves may help reconcile, in research and in reality, the paradoxical findings from the current study. Finally, although this particular child age group may be informative, as fathers can reflect back on their involvement at the end of formal child-rearing, it will be important to examine this phenomenon longitudinally. Longitudinal analyses could ascertain whether or not gender-based attitudes are stable across the child-rearing years. Finally, because mothers and fathers may have the same or different gender-based attitudes (Crompton & Lyonette, 2006; Lam, McHale, & Updegraff, 2012; Marks, Lam & McHale, 2009), it will be important to examine how mothers and fathers gender role attitudes interact to influence father involvement. It should be noted that the fathers in the present study seemed especially interested in answering questions beyond what was on the page. Some fathers wrote in answers not only where there was a designated space, but also in margins. Providing space for fathers to write in information that was not explicitly asked, or to explain their answers, may provide additional insight. 241

12 KARRE LIMITATIONS This study had several limitations. Participants were fathers whose children gave us permission to send questionnaires, and who then chose to respond. Therefore, they may inherently be highly involved fathers. However, the response rate for the fathers that were sent questionnaires was rather high at 65%. This suggests that this may be a viable method for collecting data from fathers. This study was also retrospective and cross-sectional. This could introduce bias. Fathers could be misremembering based on the passage of time or based on feelings they are having now that their child has moved on to college. The majority of fathers, however, were thinking back only six months. Given that this study is retrospective, there is no suggestion of causality, only correlation. It could be that when mothers work outside the home, fathers take on more child-rearing responsibility, and thus their attitudes become more egalitarian. However, research does suggest that gender-role attitudes are relatively stable across the lifespan (Fan & Marini, 2000). Future studies should examine fathers concurrently and prospectively. This is the first time that the adaptations to the IFI have been used to examine these concepts. Although two of the correlations were only moderate, there could be overlap in the constructs based on how the scales were adapted. In the future, specific scales could be constructed that elucidate the concepts suggested in this study. In addition, self-reports may be subject to any number of biases, including social desirability bias. Future studies should examine not only father reports but also mother reports and child reports. However, although scores were on the high end, which certainly suggests a possible social desirability bias, the distribution was normal, and variability was found, even if it was not across all response options. In addition, one strength of this study is that it included fathers reports rather than mothers reports of fathers behaviors. The quantitative sample is relatively small, especially for SEM. These results should be considered preliminary until they can be replicated with a larger sample. The qualitative sample is also small, and thus should not be used to generalize the results. However, these fathers and adolescents responses may provide insight and description that would not be obtained in the quantitative results. Thus, the qualitative data may be useful to guide future investigations. Finally, this sample was mostly high-income, highly educated, and European-American. Thus, the results cannot be generalized to other groups of people. CONCLUSION This study is an initial step in understanding the relation between fathers gender-based attitudes and their involvement, evaluation of their performance as a father, and desire to be more, or less, involved in their child s lives. The results of this study suggest that fathers with more egalitarian attitudes are more involved, which then leads to a more positive evaluation of their performance as a father. Results also suggest that those fathers with more traditional attitudes are involved less, but in retrospect would have liked to be involved more in their child s life. 242

13 GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES AND FATHER INVOLVEMENT REFERENCES Bentler, P.M., & Chou, C-P. (1987). Practical issues in structural modeling. Sociological Methods & Research, 16, DOI: / Bronte-Tinkew, J., Carrano, J., & Guzman, L. (2006). Resident fathers perceptions of their roles and links to involvement with infants. Fathering, 4, DOI: /fth Crawley, S.B., & Sherrod, K.B. (1984). Parent-infant play during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 7, DOI: /S (84) Crompton, R., & Lyonette, C. (2006). Work-life balance in Europe. Acta Sociologica, 49, DOI: / Donate-Bartfield, E., & Passman, R.H. (1985). Attentiveness of mothers and fathers to their baby s cries. Infant Behavior and Development, 8, DOI: / (85) Doucet, A. (2013). Gender roles and fathering. In N.J. Cabrera & C.S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives (2 nd ed.) (pp ). New York, NY: Routledge. Fagerskiold, A. (2008). A change in life as experienced by first-time fathers. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Science, 22, DOI: /j x Fan, P.-L., & Marini, M.M. (2000). Influences on gender-role attitudes during the transition to adulthood. Social Science Research, 29, DOI: /ssre Golinkoff, R.M., & Ames, G.J. (1979). A comparison of fathers and mothers speech with their young children. Child Development, 50, DOI: / Gottfried, A.E., Gottfried, A.W., Bathurst, K., & Killian, C. (1999). Maternal and dual-earner employment: Family environment, adaptations, and the developmental impingement perspective. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and child development in nontraditional families (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hawkins, A.J., Bradford, K.P., Palkovitz, R., Christiansen, S.L., Day, R.D., & Call, V.R.A. (2002). The inventory of father involvement: A pilot study of a new measure of father involvement. The Journal of Men s Studies, 10, DOI: /jms Hofferth, S.L. (2003). Race/ethnic differences in father involvement in two-parent families. Journal of Family Issues, 24, DOI: / X Hoffman, L.W., & Kloska, D.D. (1995). Marital roles and child-rearing: Development and validation of new measures. Sex Roles, 32, Holland, A. (1995). Fatherhood in transition: Men finding their feet as fathers. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 20, Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P.M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3, DOI: / x Keller, W.D., Hildebrandt, K.A., & Richards, M.E. (1985). Effects of extended father-infant contact during the newborn period. Infant Behavior and Development, 8, DOI: / (85) Kenny, D.A., Kaniskan, B., & McCoach, D.B. (2015). The performance of RMSEA in models with small degrees of freedom. Sociological Methods & Research, 44, DOI: / Kulik, L., & Tsoref, H. (2010). The entrance to the maternal garden: Environmental and personal variables that explain maternal gatekeeping. Journal of Gender Studies, 19, DOI: / Lam, C.B., McHale, S.M., & Updegraff, K.A. (2012). Gender dynamics in Mexican American families: Connecting mothers, fathers, and youths experiences. Sex Roles, 67, DOI 243

14 KARRE /s Lamb, M.E., & Lewis, C. (2010). The development and significance of father-child relationships in two-parent families. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (pp ). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lewis, C., Kier, C., Hyder, C., Prenderville, N., Pullen, J., & Stephens, A. (1996). Observer influences on fathers and mothers: An experimental manipulation of the structure and function of parent-infant conversation. Early Development and Parenting, 5, DOI: / (SICI) (199603)5:1<57::AID-EDP116>3.0.CO;2-K MacKinnon, D.P., Lockwood, C.M., & Williams, J. (2004). Confidence limits for the indirect effect: Distribution of the product and resampling moments. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, DOI: /s mbr3901_4 Marks, J.L., Lam, C.B., & McHale, S.M. (2009). Family patterns of gender role attitudes. Sex Roles, 61, DOl /s McGill, B. (2014). Navigating new norms of involved fatherhood: Employment, fathering attitudes, and father involvement. Journal of Family Issues, 35, DOI: / X Parke, R. (1996). Fatherhood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Parke, R.D., & Sawin, D.B. (1976). The father s role in infancy: A re-evaluation. The Family Coordinator, 25, Rina, E.M., & Feinberg, M.E. (2012). Involvement in child-rearing and mothers and fathers adjustment. Family Relations, 61, DOI: /j x Storey, A.E., Walsh, C.J., Quinton, R.L., & Wynne-Edwards, K.E. (2000). Hormonal correlates of paternal responsiveness in new and expectant fathers. Evolution and Human Behavior, 21, DOI: /S (99) Townsend, N.W. (2002). The package deal: Marriage, work, and fatherhood in men s lives. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Updegraff, K.A., Perez-Brena, N.J., Baril, M.E., McHale, S.M., & Umana-Taylor, A.J. (2012). Mexican-origin mothers and fathers involvement in adolescents peer relationships: A pattern-analytic approach. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, DOI: /j x Zvara, B.J., Schoppe-Sullivan, S.J., & Dush, C.K. (2013). Fathers involvement in child health care: Associations with prenatal involvement, parents beliefs, and maternal gatekeeping. Family Relations, 62, DOI: /fare