Hungarian Stay-at-Home Fathers: A New Alternative for Family Wellbeing

Abstract

The two significant factors that influence subjective wellbeing are job and life satisfaction, so the work–life balance, that is, balancing between the two areas, is related to several wellbeing outcomes. This issue is of particular interest in those families, where, even if only temporarily, they have chosen the non-traditional sharing of roles, in which the father becomes the primary caregiver and the mother assumes the role of breadwinner. Very few Hungarian studies focus on families where the mother is the prime breadwinner and there has been no research specifically relating to stay-at-home father–working mother families. The qualitative gap filling research that we conducted was utilized to explore the relationship between achieving work-life balance and wellbeing in case of Hungarian stay-at-home father–working mother couples. A total of 31 families were examined through a semi-structured in-depth interview with the fathers and a short questionnaire with the mothers. All participants were white, heterosexual couples with one to four children. As a result of the analysis, four typical patterns in terms of the stay-at-home father and working mother family dynamics could be identified, including to what extent this non-traditional family format contributes to the father’s, mother’s, or both of their wellbeing.

A változó apakép vizsgálata az Instagram-posztok tükrében

“…A gazdasági, a társadalmi és a szociálpolitikai változások nyomán az apaság fent ismertetett újradefiniálása arra is lehetőséget kínál, hogy az apa -akár átmenetileg -elsődleges gondoskodói szerepbe lépjen, úgynevezett otthon maradó apává (stay-at-home father) váljon, míg az anya tölti be a fő kenyérkereső szerepét. Ma már nemzetközi és hazai viszonylatban is egyre több apa hagyja el a munkaerőpiacot rövidebb vagy hosszabb időre, és vállalja a családban az elsődleges gondozó szerepét, bár ez a családi modell még mindig kivételesnek számít (Sztáray & Drjenovszky 2021a, 2021b, Drjenovszky & Sztáray 2023a, 2023b.…”

A qualitative exploration of how extended paternity leave can promote fathers’ psychological wellbeing

“…These and other such studies demonstrate an association between maternal and paternal mental ill-health. From a more positive perspective, other studies indicate the potential of good mental health in fathers for promoting the wellbeing of their children (Gere et al, 2013), and extensive paternal involvement in childcare for promoting overall family wellbeing (Sztáray Kézdy & Drjenovszky, 2021). Therefore, if we can understand more about how to support fathers experiencing or at risk of mental health problems, this can also benefit the whole family.…”

Капітал І Податкова Політика: Камо Грядеши?

“…Higher educational attainment postpones family formation and the plans to start a family, while also supporting more ambitious career plans [11,33]. Studies in Hungary show that although young people are familyoriented, they marry later and in smaller proportions than planned, and have fewer children than planned [21,10,11,26]. In other Central and Eastern European countries, young people are also increasingly reluctant to commit and prefer cohabitation without marriage and children [ 29,47].…”