Who Are the Gatekeepers? Predictors of Maternal Gatekeeping

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Objective The goal of this study was to identify determinants of maternal gatekeeping at the transition to parenthood. Design Participants included 182 different-gender dual-earner couples. During pregnancy, expectant parents completed questionnaires regarding their psychological functioning, attitudes, and expectations, and at 3 months postpartum questionnaires regarding maternal gatekeeping behavior and gate closing attitudes. Results SEM analyses revealed that mothers were more likely to close the gate to fathers when mothers held greater perfectionistic expectations for fathers’ parenting, had poorer psychological functioning, perceived their romantic relationship as less stable, and had higher levels of parenting self-efficacy. In contrast, fathers with lower parenting self-efficacy appeared to elicit greater maternal gate closing behavior. Mothers who engaged in greater gate opening behavior were more religious. Conclusions Maternal gatekeeping may be more strongly associated with maternal expectations and psychological functioning than with maternal traditional gender attitudes. Fathers’ characteristics are less predictive of maternal gatekeeping than mothers’ characteristics.

New Parents' Psychological Adjustment and Trajectories of Early Parental Involvement

“…Mothers' increased dysphoria and anxiety in response to fathers' heightened child care involvement found in our study might be attributed to implicit negative attitudes toward fathers being highly involved in child care (Schoppe‐Sullivan et al, ). It is also possible that mothers might feel a sense of guilt when perceiving that their partners are “too” involved, a psychological dilemma that working mothers may often face when balancing the demands of work and parenting.…”

“…Unmeasured variables may also explain these associations. For example, more anxious/distressed mothers might be less likely to encourage and more likely to discourage fathers' involvement in childrearing (Schoppe‐Sullivan, Altenburger, Lee, Bower, & Kamp Dush,). Fathers with psychological adjustment challenges might also be less confident in their ability to fulfill parental responsibility.…”

Coparenting dynamics: Mothers' and fathers' differential support and involvement

“…Although fathers often assume a more active role in parenting when their children both reach age 2 and become more independent from their mother, mothers continue to assume much more responsibility for child care than fathers (e.g., Coltrane & Shih, 2009;Ehrenberg et al, 2001;Kotila et al, 2013). Given their established relationship with their child right from the start of the transition to parenthood, some mothers may even feel threatened by fathers' increased involvement, leading to a greater tendency to be a "gatekeeper" and undermine the father's parenting (e.g., Schoppe, Altenburger, Lee, Bower, & Kamp Dush, 2015;Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2008).…”

Self‐perceived Coparenting of Nonresident Fathers: Scale Development and Validation

“…We assessed predictive validity with attitudinal measures of parenting self‐efficacy and parenting satisfaction (essential components of parenting self‐esteem; Coleman & Karraker, ; Johnston & Mash, ). Coparenting constructs are theoretically linked with fathers’ attitudes about parenting (e.g., parenting satisfaction, self‐efficacy; Schoppe‐Sullivan, Altenburger, Lee, Bower, & Dush, ). Based on research that higher levels of coparenting support are associated with residential fathers’ parenting satisfaction (Schoppe‐Sullivan et al., ), we expected to find a negative association between negative domains of coparenting (e.g., undermining and gatekeeping) and parenting satisfaction and self‐efficacy.…”