Caring and sharing: who looks after baby?

When the infants were 2 months old, we looked at how their mothers and fathers shared the physical childcare tasks (changing nappies, cleaning the baby’s nose, bath time, etc.).

A comparison of parents’ stated attitudes towards these activities and who actually did what revealed that neither the division of childcare between the two parents nor self-reported attitudes towards this care seemed to depend on the infant’s sex. By contrast, both attitudes and levels of participation varied considerably between mothers and fathers.

Our results confirm the conclusions of numerous studies that parental care and household tasks are unequally shared, with mothers being the main care providers for their infants. Nonetheless, the degree of inequality depends on the nature of the task, especially when it comes to baths and nappy changing. The tasks of bottlefeeding (i.e. for infants who are not breastfed) and putting the infant to bed are more equally shared. 

Parents’ Practices in Infant Care - Presented by Olivia Samuel - 2017

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