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RIVERSIDE, CA -- As
families prepare to honor good ol' dad this weekend,
researchers at the University of California, Riverside are
presenting findings on the changing role of fathers in the
family.
Scott Coltrane, chair of the Department of Sociology at
UCR, is at a workshop on responsible parenting this week,
sponsored by the National Council on Family Relations. He
said a look at national survey data shows that today's
fathers are more likely to hug their kids and share the
everyday tasks of nurturing children and maintaining homes.
"Nine out of ten fathers say they engage in
child-centered activities with their school-aged children at
least once per week - things like hugging or showing
physical affection to them, joking or playing with them,
talking with them about their interests, or showing them
appreciation," said Coltrane.
He worked with Michele Adams, a research associate, to
analyze data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID),
Child Development Supplement, a national random sample of
3,563 children and their parents surveyed at the University
of Michigan in 1997.
Dads who report that their own fathers were very involved
with them when they were growing up are significantly more
likely to pass that involvement down to their own children,
the sociologists said.
"For example dads with involved fathers are more likely
to hug their children and frequently tell them they love
them," said Adams. "These fathers are also more likely to
spend time with their children in activities that their
children value, to joke and be playful with them, and to
participate with them in housework."
Coltrane said that 93 percent of fathers with school-aged
children hug them at least once a week, which is up from 90
percent a decade ago; 60 percent hug them every day; 25
percent hug them several times a week; and 79 percent of
fathers tell their children they love them several times a
week.
"Men are more likely to play sports or engage in outdoor
activities with children than are mothers, but men are now
expected to do more with their children," said Adams. "Other
studies have shown that when fathers participate in dish
washing, laundry or other household chores, children grow up
holding fewer sexist stereotypes and have higher
expectations for sharing in their own future relationships."
Scott Coltrane, Professor of Sociology. Coltrane has
written extensively on family dynamics and gender roles. He
is the author of Family Man: Fatherhood, Housework and
Gender Equity, (Oxford University Press, 1996), named one of
the American Library Association's CHOICE Magazine's
Outstanding Academic Books of 1996. He is also author of
Gender and Families, and Sociology of Marriage and the
Family: Gender, Love, and Property. Title: Chair,
Department of Sociology and Associate Director of the Center
for Family Studies Office Telephone: (909) 787-3501 E-mail:
scott.coltrane@ucr.edu
Michele Adams, Research Associate. Adams has written
about marriage, parenting, and gender equality. She is the
author (with Coltrane) of Boys and Men in Families: The
Domestic Production of Gender, Power and Privilege, in
R. W. Connell, J. Hearn, and M. Kimmel (Eds.), The Handbook
of Studies on Men and Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage (in press); Work-Family Imagery and Gender Stereotypes:
Television and the Reproduction of Difference. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 50, 323-347 (1977); and Men's Family
Work: Child-Centered Fathering and the Sharing of Domestic
Labor, pp. 72-99, in Working Families: The Transformation of
the American Home, in Rosanna Hertz and Nancy Marshall
(eds.). University of California Press (2001). Title:
Research Associate Office Telephone: (909) 787-5444 E-mail:
madams@citrus.ucr.edu
The University of California, Riverside, founded in 1954,
offers undergraduate and graduate education to more than
14,000 students. It is a member of the 10-campus UC
system. UCR is located at Highway 60 and University Ave. in
Riverside at the foot of the Box Springs Mountains.
Photo Copyright David McNew / Getty Images
