Dads domesticated by encouragement.

• Position: Parenting - Brief article

Mothers play an important role in determining how much fathers get involved in taking care of their infants, according to research from the University of Illinois, Champaign. A study of couples found that fathers are more involved in the day-to-day care of their infants when they receive active encouragement from their wife or partner. In fact, this encouragement is important even after taking into account fathers' and mothers' views about how involved dads should be, the overall quality of the couple's parenting relationship, and how much mothers work outside the home.

In addition, fathers' beliefs about how involved they should be in child care do not matter when mothers are highly critical of fathers' parenting. In other words, fathers do not put their beliefs into practice when faced with a particularly judgmental mother. "Mothers are in the driver's seat," the study indicates. "Mothers can be very encouraging to fathers, and open the gate to their involvement in child care, or be very critical, and close...