Family Flexibility in Response to Economic Conditions: Fathers' Involvement in Child‐Care Tasks

• Author: Brian Knop,Karin L. Brewster
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12249
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• Date: 01 April 2016

B K  K L. B Florida State University

Family Flexibility in Response to Economic

Conditions: Fathers’ Involvement in Child-Care

Tasks

Recession-related increases in men’s child care

are well documented, but supporting evidence

describes the last several decades of the 20th

century. Changes in family life and in the asso-

ciation between families’ economic conditions

and the macro economy provide reason to ques-

tion the continued existence of a “recession

effect.” This article evaluates the frequency of

married and cohabiting fathers’ engagement in

the day-to-day tasks of child care during the

so-called Great Recession, using data frommale

respondents to the 2006–2010 National Survey

of Family Growth.Results indicated an increase

in men’s frequency of engagement in physical

care and feeding, starting in 2008 and contin-

uing into 2010. The share of men engaged in

daily play fell sharply at the recession’s onset

but reboundedin subsequent years. These results

suggest that, even with a narrowing of the gen-

dered division of domestic labor, room remains

for families to respond exibly to economic

shifts.

In 1993, Martin O’Connell reported that the

share of preschool children cared for by their

Department of Sociology, 526 Bellamy,Florida State

University,Tallahassee, FL 32306–2270

(bmknop@gmail.com).

This article was edited by Jennifer Glass.

Key Words: child care, fatherhood, gender roles,recession,

trends.

fathers while their mothers engaged in paid

work had increased from approximately 15% of

preschoolers between 1965 and 1988 to 20% of

preschoolers in 1991. With this increase, fathers

became the most frequent form of care for the

preschool children of employed mothers. In a

comprehensive descriptive report, O’Connell

argued that fathers’ increased participation

in their preschoolers’ care reected multiple

factors, including the rising costs of care,

the difculty of nding reliable care during

mothers’ work hours, and the economic reces-

sion of 1990–1991. O’Connell reasoned that

recession-related layoffs meant that more men

were available to provide care and increased the

salience for parents of the cost of paid care.

In a subsequent multivariate analysis, Casper

and O’Connell (1998) tested these explanations,

using data from the Survey of Income and

Program Participation for 1988, 1991, and 1993.

Their analyses provided substantial support for

O’Connell’s availability hypothesis: Greater

availability was associated with greater partici-

pation in all three years. Further, men’sbehavior

was associated with their wives’ share of the

family income in the recession year but not in

the two non-recession years. The latter nding

led the authors to suggest that the recession

effect reected not only an increase in the share

of men who were available to provide child care

but also an increase in wives’ bargaining power

when their husband’ contributions to the family

economy decreased.

Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (April 2016): 283–292 283

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12249