Book Chapter

Impegno lavorativo paterno e rapporto con i figli

Rivellini, G., Di Giulio, P.
Paternal working hours load and care of the children
In: Istat - Italian National Statistical Institute, Rosina, A., Sabbadini, L. (Eds.): Diventare padri in Italia: fecondita e figli secondo un approccio di genere, 169–198
Istat-Argomenti 31
Roma, Istat (2006)

Abstract

This paper explores the sharing of childbearing tasks between the parents of children aged 0-13. We compute a synthetic index that measures the degree of fathers´ involvement in routine activities and in play activities with their children. We observe that this involvemtnt varies with the amount of hours worked weekly by the father and with the employment status of the mother. The results show that a working mother gets more help from the father in routine activities than non-working mothers. By contrast, the time spent by the fathers playing with the children is not influenced by the mothers´s employment status. The paper also shows that fathers who have more spare time at their disposal tend to use that time to play with the children rather than to carry out routine duties, and the imbalance is even stronger than for fathers with less spare time at hand.
Keywords: Italy, child care, father
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