Is Daddy Coming to Dinner? Working Schedules and Father’s Time With Children

Annalisa Donno , Università di Padova
Maria-Letizia Tanturri, Università di Padova
Ariane Pailhé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Anne Solaz, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

The recent increase in the female labor force participation has generated a process of gender roles redefinition in parenting tasks management. Father are required to find new schemes for the organization of paid work, leisure and fathering tasks. We want to understand which elements influence the way fathers allocate their time. We expect the expression of father's role to be influenced by the workplace rules, but also by some cultural elements, like the social expectations on men as fathers. By using Italian Time Use survey data (ISTAT 2008-2009), we construct a Standard Paternal Involvement Index by starting from the idea that time with children is more/less costly, from a ‘social’ point of view, when it is less/more synchronized with the parenting time of other fathers. Results of multivariate analysis confirm that the fathers’ working schedules strongly influence both the duration and the schedule of allocation of their time with children.

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 Presented in Session 2. Children & Youth