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93 JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY, November 1998, Vol. 60, N° 4
00.93.1 - ALDOUS, Joan ; MULLIGAN, Gail M. ; BJARNASON, Thoroddur
Fathering over time: What makes the difference?
This article examines how much fathers participate in child care, an important component of domestic duties, and factors related to it. It has the advantage of longitudinal data, so that it is possible to look at changes in fathers' participation and factors affecting changes and continuities over time. The data come from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1993 National Surveys of Families and Households. The sample is restricted to White, two-parent families with at least one child younger than 5 years of age at the time of the first survey. The analyses control for the number of children and the gender of the child for whom there is fathering information. Based on prior theories and research, the study variables related to fathers child care include performance of household tasks, their marital quality, gender role ideologies, perceptions of the fairness of the division of domestic labor, and the mothers' child care hours. The labor-force variables are the husbands' and wives' hours of paid employment, as well as the earned incomes of husbands and wives. The findings indicate that hours on the job keep some men from active fathering, but if they begin taking care of young children, a continuing pattern is established. Mothers' child care hours are positively related to fathers' child care, and fathers do more with sons. The discussion places the findings in theoretical context.
English - pp. 809-820
J. Aldous, G. M. Mulligan et T. Bjarnason, Department of Sociology, 325 O'Shaughnessy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, U.S.A.
joan.aldous.1@nd.edu
(UNITED STATES, DEPENDENCY BURDEN, FATHER, CHILDREN.)
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Gender liberation, economic squeeze, or fear of strangers: Why fathers provide infant care in dual-earner families
As dual-earner families become the dominant structure for families with dependent children, demographers have noted an increase in the number of families who avoid the use of paid child-care by substituting fathers for paid child-care providers. The number of married couples in which at least one partner works a nonstandard shift has increased in recent years, a phenomenon that encourages parents to establish sequential work schedules that decrease reliance on nonparental care. This article examines the experiences of families who use fathers to care for their newborn infants when mothers return to work after child birth. It documents the hours of care provided by fathers while mothers are at work, the simultaneous use of other child care arrangements, and the average savings per family. Then this analysis explores three possible motivations for families to utilize fathers, rather than other relatives or paid caregivers, as primary care providers.
English - pp. 821-834
J. Glass, Department of Sociology, University of Iowa, W140 Seashore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242, U.S.A.
jennifer_glass@uiowa.edu
(TWO-INCOME HOUSEHOLD, CHILD REARING, FATHER, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, TIME-TABLE.)
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00.93.3 - SOUTH, Scott J. ; CROWDER, Kyle D.
Avenues and barriers to residential mobility among single mothers
Longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics are combined with local census data to examine single mothers' patterns and determinants of residential mobility between poor and nonpoor neighborhoods in the United States. Moving from a poor to a nonpoor neighborhood is facilitated by marrying and by obtaining employment and is impeded by age and home ownership. Even net of numerous controls, African American single mothers are substantially less likely to escape poor neighborhoods and significantly more likely to move into them than their non-Black counterparts. Neither receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children nor adult coresidence significantly reduces the likelihood that single mothers will move from a poor to a nonpoor neighborhood.
English - pp. 866-877
S. J. South, Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Albany, Social Science 340, Albany, NY 12222, U.S.A.
s.south@albany.edu ; crowder@cc.wwu.edu
(UNITED STATES, UNMARRIED MOTHERS, RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY, RACES, POOR.)
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00.93.4 - DOWNEY, Douglas B. ; AINSWORTH-DARNELL, James W. ; DUFUR, Mikaela J.
Sex of parent and children's well-being in single-parent households
Do women and men play unique roles in shaping children's well-being? If so, we should note important differences between offspring living with single mothers and those living with single fathers. To date, researchers have been unable to assess this claim satisfactorily because they have lacked generalizable data with detailed information about adolescents in both single-mother and single-father households. We compare well-being among youths living in single-mother and single-father households using the 1990 wave of the National Education Longitudinal Study and among adults raised by single parents using data from the General Social Surveys, 1972-1994. Our results highlight how single mothers and single fathers differ from each other in ways that often predate their family structure but suggest that there is little evidence that offspring are better off or develop particular characteristics in one household versus the other. We suggest that theorists have overemphasized the role of parent's sex in youths' development at the expense of understanding more structural explanations for the association between family structure and well-being.
English - pp. 878-893
D. B. Downey, J. W. Ainsworth-Darnell and M. J. Dufur, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.
downey.32@osu.edu
(UNITED STATES, ONE-PARENT FAMILY, SOCIAL WELFARE, SEX DIFFERENTIALS.)
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00.93.5 - JOHNSON, David R. ; ELLIOTT, Lisa A.
Sampling design effects: Do they affect the analyses of data from the National Survey of Families and Households?
Most large national surveys, such as the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), involve clustered and stratified samples. These complex sample designs have consequences for data analysis techniques. Standard errors calculated using procedures that do not adjust for design effects often are too small and lead to incorrect inferences. We discuss design effects and estimate them for a set of variables selected from the 1988 NSFH. Included are examples of descriptive estimates and regression results with household income and marital happiness as dependent variables. Statistical software that adjusts standard errors in complex designs is discussed, as are issues related to weighting and the analysis of subsamples.
English - pp. 993-1001
D. R. Johnson and L. A. Elliott, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, U.S.A.
djohnson@unl.edu
(UNITED STATES, METHODOLOGY, DATA COLLECTION, SAMPLE SURVEY, SAMPLING ERRORS.)
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Later marriages or fewer? Changes in the marital behavior of Japanese women
Using pooled cross-sectional data from recent censuses and wage surveys, age-specific models of marriage prevalence are estimated in order to examine whether rapid changes in the marital behavior of Japanese women reflect delayed marriage or an increase in the proportion who will never marry. Results indicate that higher wages for females, higher educational attainment, and recency of cohort are associated with lower marital prevalence at ages 30-34, consistent with an interpretation of increasing nonmarriage. Given the rapid pace with which Japan's population is projected to age, the rarity of nonmarital childbearing, and the relative absence of family alternatives to marriage, an increase in the proportion of those who never marry would have potentially major social, economic, and demographic consequences.
English - pp. 1023-1034
J. M. Raymo, Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 1225 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, U.S.A.
jraymo@umich.edu
(JAPAN, WOMEN, NUPTIALITY, AGE AT MARRIAGE, PERMANENT CELIBACY.)
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