5. Time use and activities with children
Raising children takes both time and money (Folbre 2001; Apps & Rees 2000). With one more mouth to feed, parents need more money to just maintain their new family's standard of living. Earning income requires parents to devote time to labour market activities; however, raising children also makes large demands on parents' time. While it is often possible to earn more money, there can never be more than 24 hours a day. Finding the right balance between work and family responsibilities has become one of the most prominent issues in the last few decades because it seems as if employment and children compete for parents' time (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2002–2005). This section uses LSAC data to explore this work–family balance by first analysing the time diary component of LSAC, and then analysing measures of co-parenting.
Studies of adults' time-use diaries show that the initial time costs of being a parent are very high, with the time costs falling as the child matures (Craig & Bittman 2005). Compared to an equivalent couple with no children, a couple with two children under 3 years of age devote an extra 35 hours per week to non-market work of child care and associated extra housework and shopping. If child care is counted as a simultaneous activity that accompanies nominal 'leisure' or personal activities, this increase is closer to 80 hours per week. Once the youngest child has reached school age, the time costs of these same children (based on primary activity only) fall to 12.5 hours per week and once the youngest child is beyond the age of 12 the time costs associated with parenting are markedly lower.
As shown in earlier sections, it is mostly mothers and not fathers who withdraw from the labour market or reduce their hours at work when they have young children. This has the potential to create the time to care for children. It is therefore not surprising that, in aggregate, mothers are responsible for most of the unpaid work associated with child-rearing (Craig & Bittman 2005; Bianchi 2000; Goward 2005). However, Australian and international time-use studies have been used to show that mothers' employment has far less impact on the time mothers spend with children than might be expected (Bittman, Craig & Folbre 2004; Nock & Kingston 1988; Bianchi 2000, Craig forthcoming). One hour of employment does not equate to one less hour with children; it appears that mothers reschedule the time they spend with children to minimise the time lost (Craig 2005). In particular, employed mothers preserve the amount of time they spend in interactive activities, spending less time on less interactive activities with their children than do non-employed mothers (Bittman, Craig & Folbre 2004; Craig 2006).
Not only do fathers spend less time with their children than do mothers, they tend to spend time undertaking a different range of activities, and are less likely to spend time alone (without the mother) with their children (Craig 2006). There is inconclusive evidence of how mothers' employment is associated with fathers' time with children, with some studies finding fathers spend more time with children when the mother is employed, but other studies finding no such association (see studies reviewed in Craig forthcoming). Similarly, there are mixed findings on the extent to which fathers' own employment hours are associated with their time with children, although more hours of employment generally reduces their time spent with children (see studies cited in Sayer, Bianchi & Robinson 2004).
As with child-rearing tasks, mothers tend to undertake the majority of other household tasks, regardless of employment status. In general, women's time on housework declines and men's time on housework slightly increases with increases in women's time in paid employment (Bianchi 2000; Nock & Kingston 1988; Bittman, Craig & Folbre 2004). The division of labour within the household, both in child-rearing and other domestic tasks, is likely to have some relationship with parental working hours. An interesting aspect of this is how this corresponds to perceived fairness in the division of these tasks (Baxter & Western 1998).
The relationship between parental employment and time with children is directly relevant to questions of work–family balance. To some extent this is evident in Section 8, in which it is shown that more hours in paid employment is associated with a higher level of being rushed or experiencing time pressure. There are other reasons for studying time with children related to the link between parental employment (especially maternal employment) and child development. Although the effects on child development of parental employment are not addressed in this report, perhaps this issue more than any other has fuelled a powerful interest in the time parents spend with children.39
This section focuses on the association between parental employment and children's times and activities spent with parents, and on how parents perceive they support their partner, are supported and understood by their partner (with regard to needs as a parent) and share the child-rearing and other domestic tasks. This is done in a simple manner, by comparing these data according to mothers' and fathers' hours of paid employment. Section 5.1 examines these associations (after an overview of the data) for time-use data, and Section 5.2 examines the co-parenting measures.
5.1 Time use
Data
Among the suite of instruments used in LSAC was a 'light' time-use diary (TUD), which measures the time that infants and children aged 4–5 years spent in specific activities, and who they were with at the time of the activity. Parents were asked to complete two diaries about their child's day, one on a weekday and one on the weekend. The diaries divided the 24-hour day into 96 15-minute time intervals. Parents were asked to mark down the time their child spent in a number of pre-coded activities. The diaries included 22 pre-coded activities for the infant cohort, such as sleeping, being breastfed, crawling and listening to a story. For the 4–5 year-old cohort there were 26 activities, including sleeping, watching television, walking and eating. For analysis in this section, the activities of the child were classified into eight broad categories (see Box 5.1).
| Activity category | Infant | 4–5 year old |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping/resting | Sleeping/napping, awake in bed. | Sleeping/napping, awake in bed. |
| Personal care | Bathe/nappy change/dress/hair care, breastfeeding, other eating/drinking/being fed. | Bathe/dress/hair care/health care, eating/drinking/being fed. |
| Interactive care | Held/cuddled, crying/upset, read a story, talked to/sung to. | Held/cuddled, crying/upset, being reprimanded/corrected, read a story, talked to/sung to. |
| Education | Colour/draw/look at book, participate organised activities/playgroup. | Colour/look at book/educational game, use computer, taught to do chores or read. |
| Passive play | Looking around/doing nothing, watching television, listening to tapes. | Watching television, movie, listening to tapes, radio, music, do nothing/bored/restless. |
| Active play | Destroy things/create mess, crawl or climb. | Destroy things/create mess, walk/ride bike/other exercise/participate organised lessons/activities. |
| Other play | Other play, visiting people/special event/party. | Other play/other activities, visiting people/special event/party. |
| Travel | Taken places with adult, taken out in a pram or bicycle seat, travel in a car or on public transport. | Taken places with adult, taken out in a pusher or bicycle seat, travel in a car or on public transport. |
Time-use diaries often classify activities into the primary activity (the main activity being done at the time) and secondary activities (other activities being done concurrently). In these data, children could be coded to a number of activities concurrently, but no distinction was made between primary and secondary activities. The coding of concurrent activities meant that the sum of time spent in different activity groups could be greater than 24 hours.
The diaries also included pre-coded context information about who the child was with, that is, who was in the same room, or if outside, who was nearby. Parents could mark whether their child was alone, with siblings or other children, with their mother (including stepmother), father (including stepfather)40 or other adults or relatives. This analysis focuses only on those times when the mother or father was present.41 Note that these data do not comprehensively measure the time that parents spend undertaking child care tasks, as parents can be responsible for children or undertaking tasks relating to child care while not in the same room as them. On the other hand, the co-presence of a parent does not necessarily indicate that the parent's primary activity was child care: the parent may be undertaking another primary activity (for example, meal preparation) while in the same room as the child; or they may be completely involved in the child's activity, for example, breastfeeding or reading to the child. In some cases, such as if both parent and child are asleep in the same room, there may actually be no active care being done by the parent.42
These data, therefore, are a very broad indication of parents' involvement in children's lives. A useful indicator of the likely degree of parental involvement is the activity of the child. Parental involvement is likely to be lower when the child is asleep, for example, compared to when the child is involved in personal or interactive care activities (as listed in Box 5.1). This analysis, therefore, includes measures of total time with children, as well as total time in different activities.43
Only diaries completed for a weekday and nominated to be a 'usual' day were analysed. This was to ensure the diary day could more accurately be related to parental employment. As the actual hours parents worked on the diary day was not known, or indeed if they did work that day, this analysis could not be done more accurately. Weekdays were chosen because the overwhelming majority of parents' work hours are on weekdays (Millward 2002). However, for parents who worked part-time or regularly worked weekends, the diary day may not have been a workday. It is also possible that parental employment during the week is associated with different patterns of time use on the weekend (Nock & Kingston 1988), but this association was not considered in this report.
This analysis was undertaken using the first release of the Time Use Diary.44 As is the accepted practice with time-use diary data, to improve data quality, diaries were excluded from the analysis if they contained more than 90 minutes of missing activity or context data or if there was a large amount of simultaneous activities. A weekday diary was completed for 3,937 infants, but there were the following exclusions: 1,489 due to poor quality, 534 because it was not a 'usual' day, and 23 due to missing employment data. This left 1,914 diaries, of which 1,785 were couples and 129 single mothers. For the 4–5 year-old cohort, there were 3,799 weekday diaries. Of these, there were the following exclusions: 2,197 for poor quality, 420 for not being a 'usual' day and 11 for missing employment data. This left 1,171 diaries, of which 1,062 were couples and 109 single mothers.
The parental employment distribution of the sub-sample used in this analysis was broadly comparable to that of the overall sample used throughout the report. The final sample contained couples and single-mother families, but in this section, comparisons were not made between these family types, due to the small number of single-mother families. The analysis is limited to an overview of time and activities with children, and on bivariate relationships between these data and the employment hours of parents.45 It is important to note that other relationships between child, family or other parental employment characteristics and the time-use data were not explored. Some of these relationships are likely to be quite significant, in particular for infants, considering variations in time spent with children and activities undertaken by children, according to the age of the child in months. A more complex multivariate analysis would be able to control for such variables, but was beyond the scope of this report.
Overview of parents' time with children
On average, mothers spent over 15 hours per day with their infant children and over 12 hours per day with their 4–5 year olds. This was roughly double the amount of time that fathers spent in the company of their infant (just over 7 hours) or 4–5 year-old child (just over 6 hours) (see Table 5.1). The time that parents were not present includes when someone else was caring for the child, but perhaps more importantly, it includes times when the child was in a room alone, but in proximity to parents or other carers.
The majority of mothers' time with the infant was spent with the infant sleeping (approximately 6 hours and 20 minutes per day) or in interactive care activities, which includes holding or cuddling the child, the child crying, or the child being read, talked or sung to (just over 5 hours and 30 minutes per day). For almost 4 hours per day, mothers engaged in personal care activities such as bathing, changing nappies, feeding and breastfeeding. Clearly, interactive care and personal care are likely to be high-contact activities, and involve a considerable amount of interaction with the mother. This demonstrates a heavy investment of parental time in the potential for symbolic communication in the early phases of the child's life. This was reinforced by a total of approximately 5 hours of mothers' presence during children's play activities (passive, active and other play). Infants' educational activities occupied less than 20 minutes of their mother's time on an average weekday.
| Children's activities | Time with mother |
Time with father | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infant | 4–5 year old | Infant | 4–5 year old | |
| Sleep | 6.3 | 4.4 | 3.8 | 3.0 |
| Personal care | 3.7 | 2.4 | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| Interactive care | 5.6 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Education | 0.2 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Passive play | 0.9 | 2.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
| Active play | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Other play | 2.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 |
| Travel | 1.7 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Total | 15.2 | 12.1 | 7.1 | 6.1 |
| (n=1,914) | (n=1,171) | (n=1,785) | (n=1,062) | |
On average, fathers' time with infants was less than mothers' time with infants in all activity groups, although, as for mothers, fathers were most often present when the infant was sleeping, in personal care or interactive care. Fathers were more likely to be present during personal care than they were during interactive care, unlike mothers (see Table 5.1).
Children's activities change as they mature (see also Australian Institute of Family Studies 2005), which is not surprising given the developmental changes that occur between the infant and 4–5 year age groups. The activities undertaken while mothers and fathers are present are therefore also likely to be quite different. But developmental differences do not explain all of these differences. Some can be explained by the differences in what a typical day entails for the 4–5 year-old cohort. Many will be in non-parental care or early education (Section 4), although not necessarily on the diary day.
Mothers' time of being present during 4–5 year olds' personal care (eating, bathing and grooming) was roughly 65 per cent of the time they devoted to being present during infants' personal care activities (see Table 5.1). Mothers' presence during interactive care was considerably lower in the older cohort, which was consistent with 4–5 year olds spending less time being 'held/cuddled' (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2005, p.23). Mothers of 4–5 year-old children spent less time with the child engaging in active and other play, compared to mothers of infants, which is likely to be in part due to the types of play children engage in at different ages, but also may be due to more play occurring in the absence of parents for older children. Mothers' time during the child's passive play (chiefly media consumption) and educational activities was higher in the older cohort. Again, this is likely to be related to children engaging in different types of activities as they get older and not necessarily due to a reallocation of mothers' time.
In analysing the time with father by activity, the same patterns emerged for the 4–5 year-old cohort as were evident for the infants, and differences between the cohorts can be explained by those same factors mentioned for mothers above (see Table 5.1). As with infants, mothers spent more time than fathers with the 4–5 year olds in each of the activity groups.
The following sections expand on these findings by considering how time with mothers and time with fathers is related to parental employment patterns, first examining the associations with mothers' hours of work and then considering fathers' hours of work.
Time spent with children by mothers' hours of work
In both cohorts, maternal employment was associated with mothers spending less time with their children, although the difference between employed and not-employed mothers was not large, at 2.0 hours difference (12.6 per cent) for infants and 1.8 hours difference (13.7 per cent) for 4–5 year olds (see Table 5.2). This finding is consistent with previous research, in Australia and the United States, showing that maternal employment has surprisingly small effects on time spent with children (Bianchi 2000; Nock & Kingston, 1988; Bittman, Craig & Folbre 2004).
The differences were greater when hours of work were taken into account. For mothers of infants the difference between no employment and full-time employment was 3.7 hours, and for mothers of 4–5 year-old children, the difference was 3.9 hours a day. If full-time employment, including travel time and breaks from work involves an absence from home of about 8 hours, this means that for every hour of work, time with children is reduced by about half an hour or less.
This is consistent with research by Craig (forthcoming), who concluded that mothers were reluctant to reduce the amount of time that they spent with their children. Employed mothers preserved time with children, to some extent, by spending more time with children at the beginning and the end of the day and by spending less time on activities such as leisure and sleep. It is not surprising, in the analyses of wellbeing in Section 8, that full-time employed mothers experienced more time pressure than other mothers.
| Mother's employment status and hours of work | Time with mother |
Time with father | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infant | 4–5 year old | Infant | 4–5 year old | |
| Not employed | 15.9 | 13.1 | 7.0 | 5.9 |
| Total employed | 13.9 | 11.3 | 7.3 | 6.3 |
| 1–15 hours | 14.7 | 12.2 | 6.6 | 5.3 |
| 16–24 hours | 13.8 | 11.9 | 7.3 | 6.7 |
| 25–34 hours | 13.7 | 10.3 | 7.5 | 6.2 |
| 35 hours or more | 12.2 | 9.2 | 9.2 | 7.7 |
| Total | 15.2 | 12.1 | 7.1 | 6.1 |
| (n=1,914) | (n=1,171) | (n=1,785) | (n=1,062) | |
Fathers spent more time with children, either infants or 4–5 year olds, when the mother was employed (see Table 5.2). However, these differences were modest and only partially compensated for the difference between employed and not-employed mothers' time with children: employed mothers spent 2.0 hours per day less with infants while their partners spent 20 minutes more; and employed mothers spent 1.8 hours less with 4–5 year olds while fathers spent around 24 minutes more.46
The same partial compensation can be seen when comparing not-employed and full-time employed mothers. The difference in mothers' time spent with the child was 3.7 hours for infants and 3.9 hours for 4–5 year olds, but the corresponding average differences in time for fathers was only 2.2 and 1.8 hours, respectively (see Table 5.2).
While the time spent with children overall is not strongly affected by parental employment, it is possible that maternal employment may be associated with less time spent with children on specific activities. For the infant cohort, the major relationships seem to be with personal care, interactive care and play time. Mothers working full-time hours spent approximately one-third less time with their infants in these activities compared to not-employed mothers (see Table 5.3). However, it is important to note that even within the infant cohort, not-employed mothers are more likely to have younger infants than mothers working full-time hours, and younger infants are more likely to spend time in personal or interactive care or certain types of play. This apparent relationship with maternal employment may therefore be a factor of the age of the child.
The relationship between mothers' hours of work and fathers' time with children by child's activity is not clear-cut (see Table 5.3). Fathers spent longer with the child when the child was sleeping, the longer the hours worked by the mother. The explanation for this is not obvious. There were other differences between fathers with full-time employed partners and fathers whose partners worked shorter hours or were not employed: the fathers with full-time employed partners spent longer with the child during personal care, interactive care and play activities. However, except for when the child was sleeping, fathers who had partners working shorter than full-time hours did not appear to have very different patterns of time spent in particular activities, compared to fathers with not-employed partners.
| Child's activities | Mother's work hours | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not employed | 1–15 | 16–24 | 25–34 | 35 or more | |
Time with mother | |||||
| Sleep | 6.6 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 6.5 | 5.9 |
| Personal care | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 2.7 |
| Interactive care | 6.0 | 5.5 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 3.9 |
| Education | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Passive play | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Active play | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.3 |
| Other play | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Travel | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 |
| Total | 15.9 | 14.7 | 13.8 | 13.7 | 12.2 |
| (n=1,171) | (n=369) | (n=185) | (n=77) | (n=112) | |
Time with father | |||||
| Sleep | 3.7 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 4.4 | 4.5 |
| Personal care | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
| Interactive care | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.4 |
| Education | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Passive play | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
| Active play | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
| Other play | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| Travel | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Total | 7.0 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 7.5 | 9.2 |
| (n=1,063) | (n=357) | (n=181) | (n=74) | (n=110) | |
In the case of 4–5 year-old children, mothers' time with children in all activities generally reduced the longer hours they worked. However, personal care and passive play, after sleep, were the activities that mothers were most likely to be present for, regardless of employment status or hours worked.
As mothers increased their hours of employment, fathers appeared to compensate 4–5 year olds for some loss of maternal availability during their personal and interactive care activities. Where mothers worked full-time hours, compared to mothers who were not employed, there was also a pattern of fathers compensating in all types of play activities. For fathers' presence during the play activities of 4–5 year olds, the differences between those with not-employed and part-time employed partners were less evident.
| Child's activities | Mother's work hours | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not employed | 1–15 | 16–24 | 25–34 | 35 or more | |
Time with mother | |||||
| Sleep | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 4.0 |
| Personal care | 2.6 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 2.0 | 1.7 |
| Interactive care | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.0 |
| Education | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| Passive play | 2.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.3 |
| Active play | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Other play | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Travel | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
| Total | 13.1 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 10.3 | 9.2 |
| (n=517) | (n=258) | (n=183) | (n=87) | (n=126) | |
Time with father | |||||
| Sleep | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.0 |
| Personal care | 1.0 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
| Interactive care | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| Education | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
| Passive play | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.2 |
| Active play | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Other play | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Travel | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Total | 5.9 | 5.3 | 6.7 | 6.2 | 7.7 |
| (n=455) | (n=238) | (n=170) | (n=85) | (n=114) | |
Time spent with children by fathers' hours of work
With a considerable proportion of fathers working long hours (see Section 3), it is relevant to consider whether paternal working hours are associated with time spent with children.
The time that fathers spent with their children, whether infants or 4–5 year olds, was affected by the hours they devoted to paid employment, but the largest differences related to comparisons of not-employed fathers with part-time employed fathers and full-time employed fathers. For the fathers who worked 35 hours or more per week (the overwhelming majority of fathers), time spent with children was relatively invariant (see Table 5.5). In the 4–5 year-old cohort, time fathers spent with children declined with longer hours work, but in the infant cohort, time fathers spent with children was lowest when they worked 45 to 54 hours, rather than 55 hours or more.
Although not-employed fathers spend the most time with children (see Table 5.5), the 12.3 hours spent with infants and 9.0 hours spent with 4–5 year olds was still only approximately the same amount of time that mothers working full-time hours spent with children (see Table 5.2).
| Father's employment status and work hours | Time with mother |
Time with father | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infant | 4–5 year old | Infant | 4–5 year old | |
| Not employed | 16.5 | 11.3 | 12.3 | 9.0 |
| Employed | 14.8 | 11.8 | 6.8 | 6.0 |
| 1–34 hours | 14.8 | 12.3 | 9.1 | 8.3 |
| 35–44 hours | 14.9 | 12.0 | 7.1 | 6.4 |
| 45–54 hours | 14.2 | 11.1 | 6.2 | 5.7 |
| 55 hours or more | 15.4 | 12.4 | 6.7 | 5.5 |
| Total | 15.2 | 12.1 | 7.1 | 6.1 |
| (n=1,785) | (n=1,062) | (n=1,785) | (n=1,062) | |
| Child's activities | Father's work hours | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not employed | 1-34 | 35-44 | 45-54 | 55 or more | |
Infant's time with father | |||||
| Sleep | 5.9 | 4.4 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 4.1 |
| Personal care | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Interactive care | 2.1 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| Education | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Passive play | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Active play | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Other play | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.6 |
| Travel | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Total | 12.3 | 9.1 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 6.7 |
| (n=95) | (n=97) | (n=647) | (n=564) | (n=382) | |
4–5 year old's time with father | |||||
| Sleep | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 2.8 |
| Personal care | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.9 |
| Interactive care | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Education | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Passive play | 2.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Active play | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Other play | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Travel | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Total | 9.0 | 8.3 | 6.4 | 5.7 | 5.5 |
| (n=51) | (n=61) | (n=362) | (n=314) | (n=274) | |
Mothers' time spent with children was barely affected by their partner's work hours. Mothers of infants spent the most time with their children when fathers were not employed.47 When fathers of infants were in paid employment, however, there was a relatively small variation in number of hours that mothers spent with their child. This pattern of relative stability of mothers' time spent with children was also found in the 4–5 year-old cohort, irrespective of whether the father was employed or not (see Table 5.5).
Fathers' time with children by activity declines in proportion to the hours they commit to paid work (see Table 5.6), as was the case for the total time spent with children. This was true of fathers of infants and fathers of 4–5 year olds. Fathers did not seem to protect time in any particular activity with the child from the incursion made by allocating more time to earning an income. For example, there does not seem to be any emphasis on maintaining the same time allocation to 'quality time' with children in play or interactive care.
In the same way that total hours mothers spent in the care of the study child (both the infant and 4–5 year-old cohorts) did not vary with respect to fathers' hours (see Table 5.5), when broken down by broad categories of activities, the time mothers spent on particular activities was similarly invariant. Although not shown here, for either cohort, the time mothers spent with the study child did not vary for specific activities across fathers' hours. This invariance of mothers' time with the study child with respect to the employment hours of the father is in contrast to her own hours of paid work (shown earlier in Table 5.3 and Table 5.4).
5.2 Perceived co-parenting
Data
For couple parents, LSAC contains a range of items that measure the extent to which parents feel that they have the support of their partner, and share in child-rearing and other household tasks. These data were collected individually from both parents, allowing for a consideration of how the characteristics of one parent were associated with the responses of the other. The measures used are listed in Box 5.2.
| Partner is a support | How often is your partner a resource or support to you in raising your children?
(1=never, 2=rarely, 3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always) |
| You are a support | How often are you a resource or support to your partner in raising your children?
(1=never, 2=rarely, 3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always) |
| Partner understands | How often do you feel your partner understands and is supportive of your needs as a parent?
(1=never, 2=rarely, 3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always) |
| Fair share child-rearing tasks | Do you think that you do your fair share of the child-rearing tasks?
(1 = 'I do much less than my fair share', 2 = 'I do less than my fair share', 3 = 'I do my fair share', 4 = 'I do more than my fair share', 5 = 'I do much more than my fair share') |
| Fair share domestic tasks | Do you think that you do your fair share of the domestic tasks? (coded as above) |
Co-parenting and parental employment
Table 5.7 shows perceived co-parenting measures analysed by own hours worked. The mean score for 'partner is a support' was high for mothers and fathers, with, on average, most parents saying their partner was often or always supportive. Fathers were somewhat more likely than mothers to say their partner was supportive, and this was consistent with the scores on the 'you are a support' measure, where mothers rated themselves higher than fathers.
These measures did not differ greatly by hours worked. Mothers who worked longer hours were more likely to say they had a supportive partner, and as the time-use diaries showed, fathers spent more time with their children when maternal hours of employment were higher. However, the extent to which mothers said they were supportive of their partner did not vary according to their own hours. Fathers who worked longer hours had slightly higher 'partner is a support' scores, but the degree to which they perceived themselves to be a support to their partner declined the longer hours they worked. This reflected less time spent with children under these circumstances.
Looking at the 'partner understands' score, most parents felt their partner 'often' understood them. Fathers were more likely than mothers to feel their partner 'always' understood them. Interestingly, the relationship with hours worked differed for mothers and fathers. For mothers, the longer hours they worked, the more likely they were to say their partner understood and was supportive of their needs as a parent. For fathers, the opposite was true—the longer they worked the less likely they were to think their partner understood and was supportive of them in this respect. Interestingly, this went against the pattern evident for fathers and hours worked for the 'partner is a support' measure.
| Hours worked | Partner is a support |
You are a support |
Partner understands |
Fair share child-rearing |
Fair share domestic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mothers | |||||
| Not employed | 4.40 | 4.74 | 4.09 | 3.88 | 3.90 |
| 1–15 | 4.40 | 4.74 | 4.06 | 3.83 | 3.92 |
| 16–24 | 4.46 | 4.73 | 4.12 | 3.77 | 3.88 |
| 25–34 | 4.45 | 4.75 | 4.12 | 3.74 | 3.95 |
| 35 or more | 4.55 | 4.74 | 4.20 | 3.66 | 3.73 |
| Total | 4.43 | 4.74 | 4.10 | 3.82 | 3.89 |
Fathers | |||||
| Not employed | 4.68 | 4.36 | 4.34 | 3.16 | 3.11 |
| 1–34 | 4.75 | 4.32 | 4.31 | 3.10 | 3.03 |
| 35–44 | 4.76 | 4.16 | 4.29 | 2.97 | 2.93 |
| 45–54 | 4.79 | 4.06 | 4.22 | 2.91 | 2.82 |
| 55 or more | 4.78 | 3.91 | 4.21 | 2.77 | 2.68 |
| Total | 4.77 | 4.10 | 4.25 | 2.93 | 2.86 |
The perceived fairness of sharing of child-rearing and domestic tasks is also shown in Table 5.7. For mothers, the mean score was on the threshold of feeling 'I do more than my fair share', while for fathers the mean score was generally closer to the perception that 'I do my fair share'. This may reflect the clear differences in the average time mothers and fathers allocated to being in the company of their children. Not surprisingly, these measures were related to hours worked, but much more so for the fathers. The 'fair share child-rearing' score declined for mothers and fathers as hours worked increased—that is, as one parent worked longer hours, the sharing of child-rearing shifted towards the other parent (or at least, there is a perception that it did). For 'fair share domestic', the score remained high for mothers at all hours worked, and was only lower for those working full-time hours (but still remained closer to an average of 'I do more than my fair share'). For fathers, there was a stronger relationship with hours worked, with fathers working longer hours more likely to say they did less than their fair share.
Did perceptions of co-parenting vary according to partner's hours worked? Table 5.8 shows these relationships. For mothers, the longer their partner worked, the lower their rating of the partner as a support, and also the lower the rating of the extent to which their partner understood their needs, a pattern consistent with the time-use diary data. The extent to which fathers perceived their partner was a support to them or understood their needs did not appear to vary by partner's hours worked.
Mothers' perceptions of the degree to which they were a support to their partner did not vary according to the hours their partner worked, matching the fact that mothers' time spent with children hardly varied with respect to their partner's hours of work. Fathers' perceptions did vary according to the hours their partner worked, with fathers more likely to say they were a support in families where the mother worked longer hours, a response related to the pattern of compensating children for the time their mothers spent in employment.
Looking at the 'fairness of sharing of household tasks', mothers were perceived to be taking on more than their fair share of both child-rearing and domestic tasks in families where the husband worked longer. Fathers were most likely to do what they perceived as their fair share (or more) of child-rearing or other domestic tasks when their partner worked full-time. They were least likely to when their partner worked less than 16 hours (but not when the partner was not employed). Once again, these perceptions were grounded in the actual pattern of time allocation revealed in the time-use diary.
| Partner's hours worked | Partner is a support |
You are a support |
Partner understands |
Fair share child-rearing |
Fair share domestic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mothers' responses by partner's hours worked | |||||
| Not employed | 4.48 | 4.70 | 4.24 | 3.68 | 3.73 |
| 1–34 | 4.46 | 4.72 | 4.13 | 3.70 | 3.78 |
| 35–44 | 4.50 | 4.75 | 4.15 | 3.78 | 3.83 |
| 45–54 | 4.41 | 4.74 | 4.08 | 3.83 | 3.89 |
| 55 or more | 4.29 | 4.74 | 3.99 | 3.96 | 4.06 |
| Total | 4.43 | 4.74 | 4.10 | 3.82 | 3.89 |
Fathers' responses by partner's hours worked | |||||
| Not employed | 4.77 | 4.06 | 4.26 | 2.92 | 2.87 |
| 1–15 | 4.79 | 4.06 | 4.24 | 2.88 | 2.76 |
| 16–24 | 4.75 | 4.11 | 4.24 | 2.93 | 2.87 |
| 25–34 | 4.71 | 4.18 | 4.23 | 2.95 | 2.82 |
| 35 or more | 4.74 | 4.32 | 4.27 | 3.04 | 3.04 |
| Total | 4.76 | 4.10 | 4.25 | 2.93 | 2.86 |
The literature on perceptions of equity, satisfaction and fairness in the domestic division of labour suggests that neither dissatisfaction nor perceived unfairness are automatic consequences of a very unequal domestic division of labour (Baxter 2000; Baxter & Western 1998; Bittman & Pixley 1997). However, the results of this analysis show a plausible consistency between perceptions and time spent with children.
5.3 Summary
Combining paid work and the care of young children is time-intensive. The children's time-use diaries showed high hours of parental availability throughout a range of children's activities.
- The time demands are greatest when children are in their first year of life and fall disproportionately upon mothers.
- Mothers' hours of employment reduced their time with children but not in proportion to the extra time demands of their jobs.
- In contrast, fathers' time with their children was only increased under the unusual circumstance of less than full-time employment, and not much affected by the difference between standard full-time hours and very long hours of work.
- Fathers' time with children increased in response to their partners' hours of employment, partially offsetting reductions in mothers' time for infants and more adequately offsetting losses of maternal availability for 4–5 year olds.
- Australian parents' expectations about 'sharing' and 'fairness' are broadly formed against a background of specialisation by sex. However, mothers were more likely to indicate they did more than their 'fair share', while fathers feel they were doing their 'fair share'. There is some recognition of how partners try to compensate for each other's work demands and it is likely that social attitudes and, therefore, the expectations that mothers and fathers have of each other are still in flux.
As the successive waves of the longitudinal study accumulate, there will be opportunities to study the effects of how parents spend time with children during their early years on the developmental outcomes of their children, including their resilience to adverse circumstances. Even with this first wave of time-use data, there is considerable scope to expand the analysis of the relationship between time spent with children and parental employment by incorporating parents' work arrangements other than hours worked, such as evening/night or weekend work, self-employment compared to casual or permanent work, the flexibility of hours, or the use of non-parental care arrangements. As well, examination of the times of the day that children undertake different activities with their parents is likely to reveal differences according to parental work arrangements, which in turn may be related to different parental and child wellbeing outcomes.