Dr Helen Norman and Professor Mark Elliot - PowerPoint Presentation

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Dr Helen Norman and Professor Mark ElliotUniversity of Manchester, UK31 August 201713th Conference of the European Sociological Association: (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, SubjectivitiesAthens, Greece, 29 August - 01 September 2017

Developing a measure of paternal involvement in childcare

Presentation outlineWhat is ‘paternal involvement’?How do we develop measures?Data and MethodsDeriving measure(s):Through factor analysisThrough qualitative experiments with fathersSummary and conclusions

What is paternal involvement? 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.

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 exploratory and confirmatory factor analysisStage 2: Validating the measure(s) through ‘qualitative experiments’ with fathers

Data: Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)A nationally representative survey following a cohort of children born around 2000 in the UK We use the first five sweeps of MCS data:Sweep 1 (2000/01): aged 9 monthsSweep 2 (2004/5): aged 3 yearsSweep 3 (2006): aged 5 yearsSweep 4 (2008): aged 7 yearsSweep 5 (2012): aged 11 yearsThere are 30 variables measuring fathers’ absolute childcare involvement

MCS variable:How often does the father….Age

1

3

5

7

11

… change the baby’s nappy?

X

… feed

the baby?

X

… get up in the night for

the baby?

X

… look after

the

baby/child

on his

own

?

X

X

X

X

X

… read to

the

child

?

X

X

X

… play with

the

child

?

X

… get

the

child

ready

for bed?

X

X

X

…tell stories to

the child

not from a book?

X

X

…play music, listen to music, sing songs or nursery rhymes, dance or do other musical activities with

the

child?

X

X

…draw, paint or make things with

the

child

?

X

X

…play sports or physically active games outdoors or indoors with

the

child

?

X

X

X

…play with toys or games indoors with

the

child

?

X

X

X

…take

the

child

to

the park or to an outdoor playground?

X

X

…talk to

the

child

about things that are important to

him/her

?

X

Method: Factor AnalysisData reduction techniqueIdentifies patterns of relationships and correlations between variables Then reduces a large number of variables into a smaller number of latent factorsExploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): to explore the structure of the dataConfirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): To verify the factor structure produced from the EFATo test a theory or hypothesis about how the variables should be organised

MCS variable:How often does the father….Age

1

3

5

7

11

… change the baby’s diaper?

X

… feed

the baby?

X

… get up in the night for

the baby?

X

… look after

the

baby/child

on his

own

?

X

X

X

X

… read to

the

child

?

X

X

X

… play with

the

child

?

X

… get

the

child

ready

for bed?

X

X

X

…tell stories to

the child

not from a book?

X

X

…play music, listen to music, sing songs or nursery rhymes, dance or do other musical activities with

the

child?

X

X

…draw, paint or make things with

the

child

?

X

X

…play sports or physically active games outdoors or indoors with

the

child

?

X

X

X

…play with toys or games indoors with

the

child

?

X

X

X

…take

the

child

to

the park or to an outdoor playground?

X

X

…talk to

the

child

about things that are important to

him/her

?

X

1. Deriving measures of paternal involvement (PI): results of the factor analysisPI9 mthsPI3 yearsPI5 years

PI7 years

PI

11 years

Feed

Nappy

Night

Look

Bed

Look

Read

Play

Read

Bed

look

Story

Music

Paint

Park

Toys

Game

Read

Look

Bed

Story

Music

Paint

Park

Toys

Game

Toys

Game

Talk

Look

PI @5 yearsReadBedLookPaintMusic

Story

Game

Toys

Park

Set 1

Set 3

Set 2

Paternal involvement at age 5

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

2: qualitative experimentsParticipants30 fathers (all heterosexual, aged 24-52 from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. 70% White British/Irish; 30% BME)Card sort + cognitive interviewAll 30 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 interviewParticipants were asked about any core tasks that were missing, and what being an ‘involved’ father meant to them.

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. Core 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) Fathers picked out ‘talking to the child about things that are important at age 11’ as separate to the other activities

Summary and conclusionsPaternal involvement (PI) is a complex term, which makes deriving a quantitative measure (over time) tricky!The quantitative (factor) analysis shows that one way of measuring PI is by deriving measures according to the age of the childThe 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 its limitations.

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 2017Award holders: Dr Helen Norman (PI), Professor Colette Fagan (Co-I), Professor Mark Elliot (Co-I). RA: Dr Laura Watt. University of Manchester, UKProject partner: Working Families: https://www.workingfamilies.org.uk/ URL: http://projects.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/involved-fathers/

Which fathers are involved in looking after their children? Identifying the conditions associated with paternal involvement

ReferencesKey referencesProject 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: BasingstokeNorman, 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