Parental Caregiving and Breadwinning Behaviors: Multiple Approaches for Understanding Predictors of Fathers' and Mothers' Involvement

Three major conceptual influences in Belsky's (1984) Process Model of Parenting (personality, marital relations, and social network) are utilized as predictors of the caregiving and breadwinning behaviors of fathers of preschool-aged children. Data on mothers is also analyzed to provide comparisons across gender. After testing the predictors in separate models, a hybrid model, constructed from the best predictors, is tested for each gender. Results indicate that all three of the individual influences are roughly equivalent in predicting parental behavior when analyzed individually, both for fathers and mothers. However, the hybrid models generally account for more variance than the individual models, suggesting the importance of simultaneously examining multiple conceptual influences on parental behavior in both genders. Further, for both fathers' and mothers' caregiving behaviors, the perceived caregiving behaviors of other same-sex parents emerged as a significant predictor, suggesting a potentially fruitful new avenue of research, and approach to intervention.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Resources and Family Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Maurer, Trent William

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pleck,Joseph H.

• Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3102579

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87785