Mother involvement as an influence on father involvement with early adolescents

This study hypothesized that father involvement is influenced by mothers' level of involvement as well as by marital conflict, mothers' work hours, and fathers' status as biological or step father. The analysis also tested hypotheses about mother involvement as a potential mediator of the effects of marital conflict and maternal work hours on father involvement, and hypotheses about factors influencing mother involvement. Children aged 10-14 from the NLSY79 who resided with their biological or step father and with their mother reported on each parent's involvement with them. As hypothesized, father involvement was predicted by mother involvement, and the reciprocal influence was not significant. Father involvement was associated with low marital conflict and being a biological father. Mothers' involvement partially mediated the effects of marital conflict on father involvement. If the mediating role of maternal involvement is not taken into account, the effect of marital conflict on father involvement is overestimated. Keywords: father involvement, mother involvement, marital conflict, stepfamilies, maternal employment Early adolescence is a crucial period in development. It marks the decline of exclusive family influence/control and increased independence from family, greater involvement with peers, and more varied nonfamily influences. Nonetheless, a

Political masculinities, crisis tendencies, and social transition: Toward an understanding of change

This introduction to the special issue on “Political Masculinities and Social Transition” rethinks the notion of “crisis in masculinity” and points to its weaknesses, such as cyclical patterns and chronicity. Rather than viewing key moments in history as points of rupture, we understand social change as encompassing ongoing transitions marked by a “fluid nature” (Montecinos 2017, 2). In line with this, the contributions examine how political masculinities are implicated within a wide range of social transitions, such as nation building after war, the founding of a new political party in response to an economic crisis, an “authoritarian relapse” of a democracy, attempts at changing society through terrorism, rapid industrialization as well as peace building in conflict areas. Building on Starck and Sauer’s definition of “political masculinities” we suggest applying the concept to instances in which power is explicitly either being (re)produced or challenged. We distinguish between political masculinities that are more readily identified as such (e.g., professional politicians) and less readily identified political masculinities (e.g., citizens), emphasizing how these interact with each other. We ask whether there is a discernible trajectory in the characteristics of political masculinities brought about by social transition that can be confirmed across cultures. The contributors’ findings indicate that these political masculinities can contribute to different kinds of change that either maintain the status quo, are progressive, retrogressive, or a mixture of these. Revolutionary transitions, it seems, often promote the adherence to traditional forms of political masculinity, whereas more reformatory transition leaves discursive spaces for argument

Pathways of Early Fatherhood, Marriage, and Employment: A Latent Class Growth Analysis

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13524-011-0022-

Patterns of change and stability in the gender division of household labour in Australia, 1986-1997

Recent research in Australia and overseas has suggested that we are witnessing a convergence of men's and women's time on domestic labour activities. But there is disagreement about whether this is due to women reducing their time on housework or men increasing their time on housework. This article addresses these issues using national survey data collected in Australia in 1986, 1993 and 1997. The results show some changes in the proportional responsibilities of men and women in the home with men reporting a greater share of traditional indoor activities. But overall both men and women are spending less time on housework. In particular, women's time on housework has declined by six hours per week since 1986. Hence, while the gender gap between men's and women's involvement in the home is getting smaller, it is not the result of men increasing their share of the load, but is due to the large decline in women's time spent on domestic labour. There is also evidence of change in the relationship. between paid and unpaid work for women. Women's hours of,paid labour had a greater impact on their involvement in domestic labour in 1997 compared to a decade earlier. The article concludes that women's increased labour force involvement in combination with changing patterns and styles, of consumption is leading to some changes in the gender-division:of household labour, but not in the direction anticipated by earlier commentators on the domestic division of labour

Masculinity—Femininity

Six areas of research in developmental and personality psychology concerning sex-typed traits, attitudes, and interests are identified as elements of a common “masculinity-femininity” paradigm needing reexamination. The masculinity-femininity paradigm is defined in relationship to Money and Ehrhardt's model for gender identity differentiation and dimorphism. The six lines of research in the masculinity-femininity paradigm are then briefly critically examined: (1) the measurability of masculinity-femininity as a trait, (2) the identification model of masculinity-femininity development, (3) the effects of father absence on boys, (4) correlates of masculinity-femininity in life adjustment, (5) cross-sex identity in males, and (6) sex role identity problems in black males. The empirical and conceptual problems in each line of research are explored, and are substantial enough to suggest the need for alternate paradigms. Two alternate models for masculinity-femininity development are briefly sketched. First, masculinity-femininity development is analogized to moral development, as a phasic process ideally leading to sex role transcendence and androgyny. Second, the acquisition of masculinity-femininity is analogized to language acquisition, as a highly symbol-dependent learning process contingent upon the interaction between an innate acquisition apparatus and a corpus of observed sex role behavior.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45567/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00288009.pd

Fathers’ caregiving and breadwinning: A gender congruence analysis

Maurer, Pleck, and Rane\u27s Gender Congruence Theory was further expanded via Bandura\u27s Social Cognitive Theory and tested to predict parenting behaviors in fathers and mothers. Results provided some support for the revised theory for fathers: Both perceived expectations from their wives for caregiving behavior and the perceived caregiving behaviors of other fathers positively predicted their own caregiving behavior, whereas no independent variables were able to predict their breadwinning behavior. Results provided little support for the revised theory for mothers: Only the perceived caregiving behaviors of other mothers positively predicted their own caregiving behavior, and no independent variables predicted their breadwinning behavior. Role Identity was not a significant predictor of behavior in either role for fathers or mothers

Adolescent smoking behavior: The relative influence of parental and peer norms

Although parental and peer smoking behaviors and attitudes have been related to adolescent cigarette use in prior studies, these relationships have often been inconsistent across studies, and rarely have both behaviors and both attitudes simultaneously been tested. This study sought to address that shortcoming by applying norm focus theory to understand adolescent cigarette use and simultaneously testing the relative influence of parental and peer smoking behaviors and parental and peer attitudes towards adolescent smoking on adolescent cigarette use. A logistic regression was used to analyze the relative influences of norms on recent adolescent cigarette use in a sample of rural, Midwestern youth. Self-reported adolescent cigarette use was negatively predicted by youths\u27 perceptions of parental objections to adolescent smoking and positively predicted by youths\u27 perceptions of adolescent smoking being common among their peers. Parental smoking behavior and peer injunctions against smoking, though modestly correlated with adolescent cigarette use, were not significant predictors in the regression model, but limited sample size provided insufficient power to detect smaller effects. Neither family structure, socioeconomic status, or parental monitoring were significant predictors of adolescent cigarette use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved