Chris Knoester

The Effects of the Transition to Parenthood and Subsequent Children on Men’s Well-Being and Social Participation:

This study uses data (N = 3,088) from the first two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to explore the effects of the transition to fatherhood and the addition of subsequent children on men’s psychological and physical health, contacts with extended family, social interactions, and work behaviors. The results sugget that new children lead to changes in men’s well-being and social participation, but the effects are conditioned by the structural context of fatherhood and men’s initial fatherhood status. Overall, the evidence indicates that the transition to parenthood and the addition of subsequent children primarily transform the organization of men’s lives, especially when they become coresident fathers. Men making the transition to parenthood are most likely to be affected. Fatherhood encourages men to increase intergenerational and extended family interactions, participation in service-oriented activities, and hours in paid labor—at the expense of spending time socializing.

Family Structure and the Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Ideology

Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, this study explores how single-parent, stepparent, and two-parent biological family structures may affect the transmission of gender ideology from parents to their adult children. Results indicate that biological parents’ ideologies are strong predictors of their children’s ideologies. Stepparents’ ideologies are predictive of their stepchildren’s only when they have high-quality relationships. Parent—child gender heterogeneity, performance of traditional parenting roles, and relationship quality are related to high similarity scores. The authors find evidence of converging ideologies between mothers and sons and diverging ideologies for fathers and daughters—especially in stepfamilies. Finally, their results suggest that high-quality relations with a stepparent enhance transmission between same-sex biological parent—child dyads but high-quality relations with a spouse in two-parent biological families produce a competing role-model dynamic.

Fatherhood and Men's Lives at Middle Age.

This article uses data on 2,024 men who were followed through the third wave of the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the implications of fatherhood experiences for men’s involvement in altruistic social activities at middle age. We find that middle-aged men (ages 45-65) who at some point in their lives become fathers are significantly more likely to have altruistically oriented social relationships and be involved in service organizations compared with men who have never become fathers. Furthermore, it appears that the defining aspect of the effect of fatherhood is the level of engagement with children while they are growing up. Neither current residential status nor whether current nonresidence occurs because of nest leaving is found to distinguish men’s altruistic ties.

Parental Leave Use Among Disadvantaged Fathers

The United States lags behind other industrialized countries in its lack of inclusive parental leave policy after the birth or adoption of a child. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,233), this study examines the patterns and predictors of fathers’ parental leave use, as well as its association with father–child engagement. Our findings indicate that the vast majority of employed fathers take parental leave, but they rarely take more than one week of leave. Fathers who have more positive attitudes about fatherhood and who live with the birth mothers are especially likely to take leave, and to take more weeks of leave, than other fathers. Finally, we find that taking parental leave, and taking more weeks of parental leave, is positively associated with fathers’ engagement levels at one year and five years after the birth of their children.

Paternity Leave-Taking and Father Engagement: Paternity Leave and Father Engagement

Evidence suggests that paternity leave-taking is associated with higher levels of father involvement, but research has been limited in its focus on cross-sectional analyses and indicators of father involvement used. This study utilizes national longitudinal data to examine whether paternity leave-taking is associated with two indicators of father engagement when children are infants, whether paternity leave-taking is associated with trajectories of father engagement during the first few years of a childs life, and whether the relationships between paternity leave and father engagement are explained by fathering commitments and attitudes. Results suggest that longer periods of leave are associated with more frequent engagement in developmental tasks and caretaking when children are infants as well as during the first few years of childrens lives. There is also evidence that father attitudes partially explain the relationships between length of paternity leave and father engagement.

Paid paternity leave-taking in the United States

ABSTRACT Surprisingly few studies have focused on paternity leave-taking in the US. This study utilizes data from three national datasets to provide a comprehensive examination of the attitudes, practices and predictors of paid paternity leave-taking in the US. Specifically, this study focuses on (a) describing attitudes towards fathers receiving a share of paid parental leave, (b) describing rates and lengths of paid paternity leave-taking and (c) analyzing the extent to which economic capital, cultural capital, social capital and father identities predict paternity leave-taking practices. The results indicate that most people support fathers receiving a share of paid parental leave in the US. Yet, rates of paid paternity leave-taking are relatively low and the majority of fathers who take paid leave take only one week or less. Economic capital, cultural capital, social capital and father identities that prioritize engaged fathering are positively associated with taking paid leave and taking longer periods of leave. Overall, the results emphasize that the current structure of US paternity leave policies seems to limit access to paid paternity leave and contribute to patterns of inequality due to more advantaged fathers having greater access and ability to take paid paternity leave than less advantaged fathers.