Exploring ways of measuring paternal
involvement through qualitative
experiments with fathers
Helen Norman and Laura Watt
University of Manchester, UK
26 April 2017
TRIAD researcher workshop 2016-18.
Seminar 2. Transition to parenthood: Hands-on working with conceptual and
methodological issues
April 24-27, 2017 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Presentation outline
• What is ‘paternal involvement’?
• Project and research questions
• Deriving measure(s):
I. Through quantitative analysis
II. Through qualitative experiments with fathers
• Summary and conclusions
What is paternal involvement?
• The term ‘involved’ connotes being ‘concerned’ and ‘engaged’
(Dermott, 2003).
• We define an ‘involved father’ as one who participates in the
nurturing tasks involved in the ‘taking care of’ children.
• We measure it as roughly sharing childcare with a partner or doing
the most.
• Although material provision (i.e.
‘breadwinning’) is an important part of
parenting, it is an activity distinct from
‘involved fathering’ for this study.
Which fathers are involved in looking after their children?
Identifying the conditions associated with paternal involvement
• Aim: To establish which employment and socio-demographic characteristics
shape paternal involvement as children age from nine months to eleven
years old.
• Award: ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (Phase 3)
• Dates: 1 February 2016 - 31 July 2017
• Award holders: Dr Helen Norman (PI), Professor Colette Fagan (Co-I),
Professor Mark Elliot (Co-I). RA: Dr Laura Watt. University of Manchester, UK
• Project partner: Working Families: https://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/
• URL: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/involved-fathers/
Research questions
• How can we develop quantitative measure(s) of paternal
involvement in childcare?
• What influences paternal involvement in childcare at different
time points of a child’s life? (i.e. 9 months, 3, 5, 7 and 11 years
old)
• Does a father’s childcare and employment behaviour in the first
year of a child’s life affect how involved he is when the child is
older?
• Does paternal involvement impact on the stability of the
relationship between the mother and the father?
How can we develop quantitative measure(s) of
paternal involvement in childcare?
To answer this research question, we carried out two
stages of (quantitative and qualitative) work:
• Stage 1: Deriving quantitative measure(s) through
statistical techniques (factor analysis)
• Stage 2: Validating the measure(s) through
qualitative experiments and interviews
1. Deriving quantitative measures: Data
• The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) – a nationally
representative survey following a cohort of children born around
2000 in the UK
• We are using data from five sweeps – taken when the cohort
child is aged nine months, three, five, seven and eleven years
old.
• There are 29 variables over the five sweeps of MCS data, which
measure how often fathers do certain childcare tasks
MCS variable:
How often does the father….
… change the baby’s diaper?
… feed the baby?
… get up in the night for the baby?
… look after the baby/child on his own?
… read to the child?
… play with the child?
… get the child ready for bed?
…tell stories to the child not from a book?
…play music, listen to music, sing songs or nursery rhymes, dance or do
other musical activities with the child?
…draw, paint or make things with the child?
…play sports or physically active games outdoors or indoors with the child?
…play with toys or games indoors with the child?
…take the child to the park or to an outdoor playground?
…talk to the child about things that are important to him/her?
1
X
X
X
X
3
X
X
X
X
Age
5
7
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
11
X
X
X
1. Deriving measures of Paternal Involvement (PI):
Results of the factor analysis
PI @
9 mths
Feed
Diaper
PI @
3 years
PI @
5 years
Play
Bed
Read
Look
Night
Look
Read
Bed
look
Story
PI @
11 years
PI @
7 years
Read
Bed
Look
Game Talk
Story
Music
Paint
Paint
Music
Toys
Park
Toys
Game
Park
Game
Toys
Paternal involvement at age 5
PI @
5 years
Set 1
Read
Bed
Set 3
Set 2
Look
Story
Music
Paint
Park
Toys
Game
Do these measures make sense?
• Do our measures really reflect what ‘involved’ fathers do?
• Are the variables organised in the correct way?
• What are the other important ‘core’ tasks that are missing?
• Solution: small-scale qualitative study with fathers to assess
whether the measures produced make sense conceptually
How can we develop quantitative measure(s) of
paternal involvement in childcare?
To answer this research question, we carried out
two stages of (quantitative and qualitative) work:
• Stage 1: Deriving quantitative measure(s)
through statistical techniques (factor analysis)
• Stage 2: Validating the measure(s) through
qualitative experiments and interviews
2: qualitative experiments
Card sort + cognitive interview
• All 29 variables were written onto individual cards (e.g. feeding at 9
months; getting child ready for bed at age 3 etc).
• Participants were asked to sort the cards into categories of ‘things
fathers do with or for their children’ and describe their thought
processes whilst doing so.
• Participants were asked to repeat the exercise up to five times.
Short semi-structured interview
• Participants were asked about any core tasks that were missing, and
what being an ‘involved’ father meant to them.
Selection and recruitment
• Access: Fathers accessed through five primary schools in
the Greater Manchester area of the UK
• Recruitment: Fathers approached in the playground at
the start or end of the school day
Monetary reward (£30 / €36) offered
• Sample = 30 heterosexual fathers aged 24-52 from a
range of socio-economic backgrounds; 70% White
British/Irish; 30% BAME.
Results: how were activities grouped?
• 50% of fathers grouped childcare activities by age (validating our statistical
measure).
• 50% of fathers grouped activities by ‘type’ of activity e.g.
– Basic care activities (e.g. looking after child on own, changing diapers,
getting up in the night, feeding the child, getting child ready for bed)
– ‘Bonus’ activities (e.g. reading, telling stories, taking child to park,
playing with toys and games, playing sports, doing musical activities,
drawing and painting)
• Some fathers sub-divided the ‘bonus’ activities into learning activities (e.g.
reading), fun/physical activities (e.g. play, going to the park) and creative
activities (e.g. music, drawing)
Results: Which activities are missing?
• General care e.g. making appointments and taking them to
doctors and dentist, taking them to after-school clubs, buying
things for them.
• Excursions and holidays e.g. taking them to museums,
swimming, the zoo, cinema, beach.
• Education/personal development e.g. helping with homework,
teaching, watching them in school plays, instilling values, beliefs
and qualities such as kindness, respect and honesty.
• Emotional care e.g. talking to them about problems, worries,
concerns, providing physical affection
Summary and conclusions
• Paternal involvement (PI) is a complex term, which makes deriving a
quantitative measure(s) tricky!
• The quantitative (factor) analysis shows that one way of measuring
PI is by deriving measures according to the age of the child.
• The qualitative (experiments) analysis partially corroborates this –
but also highlights other ways in which PI can be measured.
• This triangulation of research methods improves the validity and
reliability of our quantitative measures but also highlights some of
the limitations.
References
Key references
•
Project URL: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/involved-fathers/
•
Norman, H., Elliot, M. (2015) : Measuring paternal involvement in childcare and housework,
Sociological Research Online, 20(2), [7]
•
Norman, H. (2015): Paternal involvement in childcare: how can it be classified and what are
the key influences?, Families, Relationships and Societies, 4(3) (fast track online version:
2015; printed version: March 2017)
Other related references:
•
Fagan, C., Norman, H. (2016): ‘What makes fathers involved? An exploration of the
longitudinal influence of fathers’ and mothers’ employment on father’s involvement in
looking after their pre-school children in the UK’ in Crespi, I., Ruspini, E. (ed): Balancing work
and family in a changing society: the father’s perspective, Palgrave MacMillan: Basingstoke
•
Norman, H., Elliot, M. and Fagan, C. (2014) ‘Which fathers are the most involved in taking
care of their toddlers in the UK? An investigation of the predictors of paternal involvement’,
Community, Work & Family, 17:2, 163-180