Narratives of fathering young children in Britain: linking quantitative and qualitative analyses

Figures & data

Table 1. Longitudinal working status of fathers and mothers: Three MCS sweeps.

Age 3	Age 5	Age 7	Father %	Mother %
In work	In work	In work	88.1	50.5
No work	In work	In work	2.1	8.8
In work	No work	In work	1.7	2.7
No work	No work	In work	1.0	7.2
In work	In work	No work	2.1	3.4
No work	In work	No work	.4	1.7
In work	No work	No work	1.0	3.0
No work	No work	No work	3.5	22.9
N (100%)			8287	8287

Table 2. Combined longitudinal working status of fathers and mothers: Three MCS sweeps.

Working patterns	%
Consistent dual earner: both parents in work all ages	47.3
Consistent male breadwinner: father only in work all ages	17.0
Father in work, mother returned to work: father in work age 3, both in work age 5 and 7, or father in work age 3 and 5, both in work age 7	14.5
Father or both parents in work, various patterns over the three ages^a	9.4
Mother only in work all ages	0.6
Mother, father or both parents in work all ages	3.7
Both parents not in work all ages	2.6
Both parents not in work, two of three ages	1.7
Both parents not in work, one of three ages	3.4
N (100%)	8287

^aFor example, father in work age 3, both in work age 5, father in work age 7; both in work age 3 and 5, mother in work age 7; both in work age 3, father in work ages 5 and 7.

Table 3. Answer categories for variables on how fathers feel about time they spend with their child: Three MCS sweeps.

Age 3		Ages 5 and 7
Categories	Age 3%	Categories	Age 5%	Age 7%
		Too much time	0.5	0.5
Plenty of time	25.2	More than enough	8.7	9.2
Just enough	23.4	Just enough	33.2	35.2
Not quite enough	36.6	Not quite enough	40.7	39.6
Nowhere near enough	14.6	Nowhere near enough	16.8	15.5
Not sure	0.1	Not sure	0.1	0.1
N (100%)	7013		7529	7261

Table 4. Longitudinal trajectories of fathers’ experiences of time spent with their child: Three MCS sweeps.

	Age 3	Age 5	Age 7	Father %
1	Enough	Enough	Enough	22.9
2	Enough	Enough	Not enough	7.0
3	Enough	Not enough	Enough	7.4
4	Not enough	Enough	Enough	6.3
5	Enough	Not enough	Not enough	10.9
6	Not enough	Enough	Not enough	5.7
7	Not enough	Not enough	Enough	8.0
8	Not enough	Not enough	Not enough	31.9
	N (100%)			6127

Table 5. Couple employment trajectories and fathers’ chronicles of time spent with child: Three MCS sweeps.

	Dual earner consistently %	Male breadwinner consistently %	Father in work consistently, mother returned to work %	Other irregular patterns %
Consistently enough time	19.9	19.8	16.7	19.9
Getting worse (enough to not enough time)	18.6	18.1	17.2	16.0
Varied, no pattern	12.9	14.7	11.8	10.7
Getting better (not enough to enough time)	14.0	13.2	16.8	15.7
Consistently not enough time	34.6	34.2	37.4	37.7
N (100%)	3055	939	885	566

Note: Differences between groups are not statistically significant.

Table 6. Fathers’ trajectories of working hours and chronicles of time spent with child: Three MCS sweeps.

	Always 1–39 hrs	Always 40+ hrs	1–39 to 40+ hrs	40+ to 1–39 hrs	Mixture
Consistently enough	26.1%	15.2%	19.6%	21.2%	14.7%
Getting worse	19.8%	18.1%	14.2%	19.9%	18.3%
Varied, no pattern	13.1%	12.0%	12.5%	17.6%	12.3%
Getting better	13.9%	13.7%	16.3%	13.2%	12.2%
Consistently not enough	27.0%	41.0%	37.5%	28.2%	42.5%
N (100%)	1078	2384	901	489	564

Note: A chi-square test showed that there was a significant difference between fathers reporting they spent ‘consistently not enough’ time with their child by their working hours (X²= 85.27, p < .001).

Table A1. Families participating in MCS1 and MCS4 with the longitudinal sample of families.

	MCS1	Longitudinal Sample	MCS4	Longitudinal Sample
Both biological parents	82.4	86.6	72.1	75.0
Biological mother + step-father	0.2	0.2	4.9	4.4
Biological father + step-mother			0.3	0.2
Lone biological mother	17.1	13.1	20.2	18.2
Lone biological father			0.7	0.5
Other	0.3	0.2	1.8	1.6
N	18,552	11,721	13,857	11,721

Note: Although two biological parents are slightly over-represented and lone mothers are slightly under-represented in the longitudinal sample, the composition of families is very similar.

Table A2. Parent status of the main respondent in longitudinal sample of biological parents.

Sweep
AGE3	AGE5	AGE7	Percent	Frequency
M	M	M	96.0	7967
F	F	F	0.3	25
M	M	F	1.4	113
M	F	F	0.5	43
M	F	M	1.2	101
F	M	F	0.1	5
F	M	M	0.4	33
F	F	M	0.2	15
				8302

Note: M: mother; F: father.