Child RearingThe last domain of dom

Child Rearing
The last domain of domestic life that we examine is child rearing. The survey included two sets of
questions about child rearing tasks, one that refers to tasks when the couple’s first child was at the
preschool ages of two to five and another that refers to tasks when the child was at the early school ages
of six to ten. Respondents were only asked the set of preschool age questions if they had a child who was
at least two years old, and the early school age questions if they had a child at least six years old. As a
result, a number of persons in the most recent marriage cohort, especially those married only a few years,
were excluded from the questioning because they had not yet had a child who reached ages two or six.5
The format of the questions asked about child rearing tasks was similar to that for questions about
household tasks. First respondents were asked who the main person was who did each task. Then,
regardless of who was the main person doing the task, respondents were asked whether they and whether
their spouse contributed a lot, some, a little, or not at all to the chore. Questions about preschool age
children, asked about five child rearing tasks: looking after, feeding, bathing, disciplining, and playing
with the child when the first child was aged two to five. The set of questions about when the child was in
the early school ages asked about three tasks: attending school meetings, helping the child with
homework, and disciplining the child. Together, these questions enable us to assess gender roles in child
rearing at two important stages in the upbringing of the respondents’ first child.
Similar to the situation with questions on domestic chores, the gender of the respondent clearly affects the
reporting about the relative roles of husbands and wives in child rearing tasks (results not shown). For
example, regardless of the task, men are more likely than women to report that the husband equally shares
the task with the wife or is mainly doing the task. Men were also more likely than women to say that they
did each chore some or a lot than women were to say that their husband did so. Finally, women reported
more frequently that they did each child rearing task a lot than men reported that their wives did the task a
lot. At the same time, there is broad agreement among both men and women with respect to which child
rearing tasks husbands were likely to contribute to and which tasks husbands were unlikely to do.
As evident in results presented in Table 6, there is considerable agreement between men and women in
terms of the percent who reported that someone other than the husband or wife was the main person doing
the child rearing task. The extent that someone else took main responsibility varies substantially with the
specific task and the stage of the child’s life. Once the child reaches school age, others besides the couple
are very rarely reported as the main person responsible for the tasks being considered. At preschool ages,
however, it is far more common for someone other than the couple to be responsible for some of the
tasks, especially for looking after the child. In most such cases it is the parents of the husband (results not
shown in table).
The percent that report that someone other than the husband or wife was mainly responsible for the
various child rearing tasks when the child was age two to five is distinctly higher for the earliest marriage
cohort than for the following two cohorts. Given that the earliest marriage cohort were raising their first
10
child during a period of war, separation of couples may have been relatively common. This could account
for the higher involvement of others besides the couple in raising young children. A similar pattern of
cohort differences, however, does not hold for the tasks asked about when the child was age six to ten.
This may in part reflect that for many of the respondents in the earliest cohort, by the time their first child
was of school age, the war period was over and separation of spouses less common.
In contrast to the patterns observed with respect to husbands’ participation in domestic chores, there
appears to be an increase in the involvement of husbands in a number of preschool child rearing tasks
across the three marriage cohorts as seen in Table 7. Two measures of husbands’ involvement are
presented. One refers to the combined percent of respondents who report that the husband was mainly
responsible for the task or shared main responsibility equally with the wife. The other indicates the
percent that report that the husband did the task some or a lot. For all five preschool child rearing tasks
considered, both measures indicate that husbands’ involvement was distinctly the lowest for the earliest
marriage cohort and, for almost all, highest for the most recent cohort. In general, however, increase
between the first and the middle cohort is substantially greater than between the middle and most recent
cohort. As noted above, the substantial increase between the first two marriage cohorts in husbands’
involvement may reflect at least partially the fact that many in the earliest cohort would have been raising
their first child during the period of war. This would not explain, however, the more modest increases in
husbands’ involvement for most of the tasks between the middle and most recent cohort. In contrast to
husbands’ involvement, no consistent pattern of change is evident across the marriage cohorts in the
involvement of wives in preschool childcare tasks. In all three cohorts the majority did each of the tasks a
lot.
The pattern of change across cohorts is more varied for the early school age child rearing tasks asked
about. Husbands’ involvement in disciplining the child is substantially higher for the middle and most
recent cohort compared to the earliest cohort but husbands’ involvement in going to school meetings and
helping with the child's homework is highest for the middle cohort. This may partially reflect a greater
concentration of school aged children of the most recent cohort towards the younger ages of the age range
when school meetings and homework are less important and not deemed necessary for the child’s father
to get involved.
There is some evidence of increased involvement of wives in the tasks related to early school age
children. Most notable is the consistent increase in the percent of wives who frequently assist children
with their homework. The increase is particularly sharp between the middle and the most recent cohorts.
Although not statistically significant, the highest percentage of wives frequently going to school meetings
and disciplining their first child during school ages is also found for the most recent marriage cohort.
When the wife’s frequent involvement in any of the three tasks combined is considered, a consistent and
statistically significant increase is found.
Tables 8 and 9 assess changes in husbands’ involvement in preschool and in early school age child
rearing respectively within a multivariate framework using logistic regression. The dependent variables
refer to whether the husband did each of the tasks under consideration at least sometimes (0 for no, 1 for
yes) and includes a summary variable indicating whether the husband did any of these tasks covered in
the table at least sometimes. As with the logistic regressions relating to household chores and domestic
decision making, the covariates included are marriage cohort, gender, area of residence, whether or not
the wife has high education and whether or not someone other than the couple mainly did the task.
The results in Table 8 confirm the substantial increase over the course of the three cohorts in husbands’
involvement in all of the preschool age tasks under consideration. For every task, as well as for the
summary measure, the highest odds ratio is associated with the most recent cohort and both the odds ratio
for the middle and the most recent cohorts are statistically significant. Statistically significant odds ratios
11
below 1 for all measures are associated with the respondent being female indicating that women attribute
less frequent involvement to husbands than do men in these childcare tasks. Odds ratios below 1 are also
associated with being in rural areas and for all tasks, except looking after the child, are also statistically
significant. This indicates that husbands in rural areas have lower involvement than those in urban areas
in these preschool childcare tasks. No statistically significant odds ratios are associated with the wife
having high education. However, having someone other than one of the spouses mainly doing the task
has a strong negative influence on the frequency of the husband's involvement.
Table 7 indicates a more mixed pattern of change in husbands’ involvement in tasks associated with
school age children. The odds ratios associated with marriage cohorts are statistically significant only for
disciplining the child and for the summary measure. In fact, the odds ratios are below 1 in the case of the
most recent marriage cohorts in relation to going to school meetings and helping the child with homework
although they are not statistically significant. The odds ratios below 1 associated with female respondents
indicates again that women report that husbands do the tasks under consideration less frequently than men
report for themselves. Odds ratios associated with living in a rural area are substantially below 1 and
statistically significant for each task indicating that rural husbands are less involved in these tasks than are
urban husbands. Having some other person than one of the couple mainly do the chore also reduces the
frequency with which the husband is involved.
The overall impression provided by the results on roles in the care of the first child during preschool ages
is that husbands’ involvement in care tasks has increased over the time period