Haas, L. & O’Brien, M. (2010) editors of Special Issues Part 1and Part 2 New observations on how fathers work and care: introduction to the special issue--Men, Work and parenting Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Men as Fathers, Vol. 8, No 3. 271-275
Work Hours of British Fathers
Using data from the UK’s Third Work-Life Balance Employee Survey (2006) this paper explores whether long working hours, characteristic of British fathers, is best explained by men’s career stage or their parental status. Guided by theoretical concepts “father as breadwinner” and “father as carer,” it is hypothesised that fathers will work long hours to fulfil an economic provider role and “caring fathers” will work less hours to be more involved in the family. Men without dependent children are assumed to have lesser economic and caring demands or motivations. Regression models showed that being a father, rather than career stage, predicted working longer hours, controlling for earnings, education and partner’s work status. However, being in a professional occupation predicted working longer hours for all men, irrespective of parental status.
Equal Opportunities Commission Projects on Working Fathers 2005-2002
This report explores the extent to which fathers can be further incorporated into a shared caring framework for family-employment reconciliation policies. The report reviews current academic and policy developments on shared caring with a specific focus on the role of fathers in employment.
O’Brien M and Shemilt I (2003) Working Fathers: Earning and Caring. London: Equal Opportunities Commission. ISBN 1 84206 039 2
This report presents a systematic review of literature sources on fathers and work from 1995 (and key texts prior to 1995) – 2002 including a general search of electronic databases including Web of Science, EBSCO, PsychLit, PubMed, Medline, Eurostat and databases dedicated to fatherhood issues. The report focuses on fathers in employment concentrating on both their ability to balance work with family life and the role they play within the family.
It also presents a secondary analysis of the DfEE Work-life Balance 2000 Employer and Employee nationally representative UK datasets exploring provision, demand and uptake of family-friendly employment practices amongst fathers.
Dr Laura Biggart: Fathers, work and family: Psychosocial influences
Design: This research explored fathers’ experiences of work and family examining fathers’ as a social category, as individuals and through their work and family characteristics. Using a quantitative approach, a secondary data analysis of fathers’ work hours and flexible working was undertaken. Two further quantitative studies examined organisational and dispositional factors in relation to work-family conflict, partly to contribute to the little research in this area, but also to examine the emotion perception of fathers in relation to work family conflict.
The aims of the research were to add to a growing body of fatherhood research in the work-family area, usually assumed to be solely of concern to mothers. In addition, the research aimed to examine behaviours and perceptions of fathers in relation to work and family and to examine individual differences relative to work-family conflict.
Findings:
The study examined both dispositional and structural factors influencing fathers’ work-family life using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 2005) Bioecological systems theory as a framework situating fathers within a nested set of contextual environments. Microsystems of family and work are proximal systems with most immediate influences on individual behaviour (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The research focused on fathers and examined the negative aspects of work and family spill-over and role conflict in assessing their levels of work-family conflict across three studies.
Study 1 examined fathers’ working hours and working patterns from a secondary analysis of two UK government datasets (n179 and n1096). Findings from Study 1 showed that: fathers’ working long hours were most likely to reduce their work hours after the birth of their child; that the majority of fathers used some form of flexible working and; that fatherhood status predicted longer work hours in comparison to non-fathers.
Study 2 evaluated two concepts of emotional intelligence and considers the relationships between these emotional intelligence concepts and work-family conflict in a small sample of public sector fathers (n33). Findings for Study 2 showed moderate associations between Trait EI and work-family conflict, but no significant associations between Ability EI and work-family conflict.
The final study assessed the relative contribution of dispositional factors and structural factors on work-family conflict in a sample of 186 fathers. Findings from Study 3a showed that global Trait EI influences work-family conflict in a model with other known work-family conflict antecedents and that the sub-domain of Trait EI Self-control appeared to particularly predict work-family conflict. Findings from Study 3b showed that biosystem variables have most influence on Strain based work-family conflict, whilst work microsystem variables have most influence on Work interfering with family conflict.
Linked publications:
Biggart, L., & O’Brien, M. (2010), UK Fathers’ Long Work Hours: Career Stage or Fatherhood? Fathering, 8(3), 341-361.
Biggart, L., Corr, P., O'Brien, M. & Cooper, N. (2010), "Trait emotional intelligence and work-family conflict in fathers", Personality and Individual Differences, 48, pp. 911-916
