Time in parenting was compared for new mothers and fathers in a sample of 182 dual-earner families. Parenting domains included positive engagement, responsibility, routine childcare, and accessibility. Time diaries captured parents’ time use over a 24-hour workday and nonworkday when infants were 3 and 9 months old. Parents were highly involved with their infants. Mothers were more involved than fathers in positive engagement and routine childcare on both days and at each assessment, and allocated more available time on workdays to these domains than fathers, with one exception. Fathers and mothers allocated similar shares of available workday time to positive engagement at 9 months. Greater equity in responsibility and accessibility was found; Mothers spent more, and a greater share of, parenting time in responsibility than fathers on the 9-month workday only, and were more accessible on the 3 month workday only. Implications for parents in today's diverse families are discussed.

Supportive coparenting after relationship dissolution is associated with increased father involvement which can buffer against the negative effects of parental relationship dissolution. Low-income, at-risk families are much more likely to experience relationship dissolutions; hence, supportive coparenting after dissolution is particularly important in these families. We examined whether relationship (commitment and quality) and child (difficult temperament and gender) characteristics predicted initial levels of, and change in, supportive coparenting after relationship dissolution in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,603). We used structural equation modeling of latent growth curves to examine four time points collected at the focal child’s birth and first, third, and fifth birthdays. Ninety-percent of the mothers had nonmarital births, and about three-quarters had a high school diploma or less education. Overall, supportive coparenting decreased over time. Mothers in more committed relationships prior to the dissolution initially had significantly lower supportive coparenting. But over time, mothers who had been in more committed relationships increased in supportive coparenting. Mothers who had been in higher quality relationships prior to dissolution initially reported more supportive coparenting. At each time point, if a mother was romantically involved with a new partner, she reported significantly lower supportive coparenting compared to mothers who were single. With regard to child characteristics, mothers who reported their child as more difficult had significantly lower initial supportive coparenting. Similar results for fathers are discussed. Overall, the relationship characteristics of parents were important predictors of supportive coparenting both initially and over time.

Children's socioemotional development is child as well as parent driven. Yet, transactional frameworks are rarely applied to studies of father-child relations. This study examined reciprocal associations between father involvement in play and caregiving and children's adjustment and tested supportive coparenting behavior as a moderator of these associations. One hundred twelve families participated in a 1-year longitudinal study. Fathers reported on their involvement and mothers and teachers reported on preschoolers' behavior at two time points, and supportive coparenting behavior was observed at the second time point. Results showed that father involvement in play predicted relative decreases in externalizing behaviors, and also relative decreases in internalizing behaviors and relative increases in social competence at school only when accompanied by supportive coparenting behavior; reciprocally, fathers showed relative reductions in their play with children initially high in internalizing behaviors perceived by teachers. Father involvement in caregiving predicted relative increases in children's internalizing behaviors, but reciprocal effects indicated that these associations may be driven by children. The presence of reciprocal associations between father involvement and child behaviors that differed for play and caregiving domains and were moderated by supportive coparenting behavior suggests the importance of a transactional, domain-specific, and systemic approach to understanding father-child relations and the implementation of relevant intervention practices.

Self-report data from 112 two-parent families were used to compare levels and predictors of four types of mothers’ and fathers’ engagement with their preschool aged children: socialization, didactic, caregiving, and physical play. Mothers were more involved than fathers in socialization, didactic, and caregiving, whereas fathers were more involved than mothers in physical play. Mothers’ greatest engagement was in caregiving, whereas fathers were about equally engaged in didactic, caregiving, and physical play. Mothers who contributed more to family income were less engaged in socialization and caregiving, whereas fathers with nontraditional beliefs about their roles were more engaged in didactic and caregiving. Children with greater temperamental effortful control received more didactic and physical play engagement from mothers. Fathers were more likely to engage in socialization activities with earlier-born children, whereas mothers were more likely to engage in socialization with girls high in effortful control. Mothers were more likely to engage in physical play with boys and with later-born children.

This study examined the trajectories of time new fathers and mothers in dual-earner families (N = 178) reported spending in developmentally appropriate positive engagement activities over the first 9 months of their child's life on both work and non-workdays. We also explored how paternal and maternal engagement patterns in infancy were associated with children's later social-emotional competence during toddlerhood (M = 25 months). Utilizing latent growth models, we found that, compared with mothers, fathers spent significantly less time engaging with their infants; however, both parents increased their engagement over time at relatively the same rate. Fathers’ rate of increase over time and mothers’ initial starting point of engagement on non-workdays were associated with toddlers’ attention and mastery motivation. Findings are discussed with regards to what they mean for dual-earner couples and fathers’ investment in their offspring, highlighting what they may imply about the second demographic transition and family functioning.