Gender Differences in Parents’ Time With Children and Daily Emotional Well-being: Does Child’s Gender Matter?

Daniela Negraia , University of South Carolina
Jill Yavorsky, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and survey questions from ATUS’s Wellbeing Module (waves 2010, 2012, 2013), we examine if, and how, the sex of a child influence’s mother’s and father’s emotional states (feelings of happiness, stress, etc.) during childcare activities. We also examine whether parent’s emotional states during time spent with either boys or girls are associated with greater or lesser amount of time that mothers and fathers devote to a particular child’s sex. Given persistent gaps in childcare time between mothers and fathers particularly for daughters, we are especially interested in whether men who report more favorable emotions during time spent with daughters report a greater amount of time spent with them. Lastly, we assess whether the association between the sex of a child and parent’s emotional states during childcare activities varies across the age of the child, revealing unique well-being patterns for different child-stages.

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 Presented in Session 19. Families, Health, and Well-being