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Mothers' and fathers' well-being while parenting: does the gender composition of children matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniela V. Negraia

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Jill E. Yavorsky
  • Denys Dukhovnov

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

Objective: This study examines whether—and if so how—gender composition of children matters for mothers’ and fathers’ well-being during parenting activities. Background: Despite that parents interact with girls and boys differently and spend different amounts of time with them, scholars have paid little attention to how gender composition of children may influence parental well-being. Method: The study assessed parental well-being during time spent with children, across four measures of subjective well-being (N = 16,140 activities, 8,621 parents), pooled across three survey waves (2010, 2012, 2013) from the American Time Use Survey Well-being Module. Random intercept models were used to account for the multilevel structure of the data. Results: For both mothers and fathers, gender composition of children was not associated with different levels of positive emotions, like happiness or meaning, while parenting. However, for negative emotions, fathers reported greater stress parenting all girls and mixed-gender children (i.e., girl/s and boy/s at the same time) compared to parenting all boys. Mothers reported greater fatigue and stress parenting all girls, compared to parenting all boys. Differences in parenting activities partially explained the stress patterns, for both fathers and mothers. Conclusion: This study, which is contextualized in broader literature on gender stereotypes, interactional processes and time-use, makes several contributions to research on gender, family, and health and identifies an important factor—gender composition of children—that helps shape mothers’ and fathers’ well-being while parenting. Keywords: childhood/children, gender, family roles, parenting, time-use, well-being

Suggested Citation

  • Daniela V. Negraia & Jill E. Yavorsky & Denys Dukhovnov, 2019. "Mothers' and fathers' well-being while parenting: does the gender composition of children matter?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-013, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2019-013
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2019-013
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Peter Brummund & Jason Cook & Miriam Larson-Koester, 2020. "Is there still son preference in the United States?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 709-750, July.
    2. Mariagiovanna Baccara & Allan Collard-Wexler & Leonardo Felli & Leeat Yariv, 2014. "Child-Adoption Matching: Preferences for Gender and Race," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 133-158, July.
    3. Kai Ludwigs & Richard Lucas & Martijn Burger & Ruut Veenhoven & Lidia Arends, 2018. "How Does More Attention to Subjective Well-Being Affect Subjective Well-Being?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(4), pages 1055-1080, December.
    4. Alan Krueger & Daniel Kahneman & Claude Fischler & David Schkade & Norbert Schwarz & Arthur Stone, 2009. "Time Use and Subjective Well-Being in France and the U.S," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 7-18, August.
    5. Arie Kapteyn & Jinkook Lee & Caroline Tassot & Hana Vonkova & Gema Zamarro, 2015. "Dimensions of Subjective Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 625-660, September.
    6. Lundberg, Shelly, 2005. "The Division of Labor by New Parents: Does Child Gender Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 1787, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    USA; childhood; children; family relationship; gender; mental health; parenthood;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

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