First-Year maternal employment, resources, and trajectories of father engagement with preschoolers

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effect of maternal employment status during the first year of a child’s life on the trajectory of fathers’ engagement with preschool-aged children, using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 969). Further, the role of resources was examined regarding the relationship between first-year maternal employment and the fathers’ engagement trajectory, guided by the conservation of resources (COR) theory. Analyses of the growth curve models found that during children’s preschool years, the engagement trajectory of fathers whose wives were employed declined more rapidly than that of fathers whose wives were not employed. When resources are held constant, the engagement trajectory of fathers whose wives were employed declined less rapidly, resulting in an increased trajectory difference. These findings emphasize the importance of trajectories of father engagement associated with maternal employment when designing intervention programmes to increase fathers’ engagement with their infants.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation of resources
• family resource
• father engagement
• growth curve model
• maternal employment
• preschool-aged children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jinhee Lee

Jinhee Lee is a faculty member at the Silla University. As an assistant professor, he has taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses about early childhood development, family development, and parenting issues. He is particularly interested in fathers’ engagement with children in the earliest years of life. He has research in the areas of the development of father engagement with children from birth to five years, child gender/ethnic difference and father engagement, and family resilience. His research work aims to enhance current understandings of the richness and resilience of early life experiences of children and their families.