Summary: Researchers find that parenting is more stressful and wearing for mothers than for fathers.
Source: Cornell University
Study Finds Mothers Experience More Strain in Parenting Than Fathers
A new study by a Cornell University sociologist shows that while parents generally enjoy spending time with their children, mothers report greater strain and fatigue in their parenting roles compared with fathers. The research, published in the American Sociological Review, examines how the type of activities parents do with children and the broader context of care shape mothers’ and fathers’ subjective well-being.
Researchers conclude the disparity largely reflects differences in how mothers and fathers spend their time with children. Mothers tend to shoulder more basic and necessary childcare tasks—feeding, bathing, cleaning, cooking and other routine chores—while fathers spend a larger share of their time on play, leisure, and other activities that parents typically find more enjoyable and less stressful. In addition, mothers are more likely to be the sole caregiver during child-focused time, report more sleep disruption and have less leisure time, all of which correlate with lower well-being.
“It’s not that moms are so stressed out with their kids, but relative to fathers, they’re experiencing more strain,” said Kelly Musick, associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell and co-author of the study, “How Parents Fare: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Subjective Well-Being in Time with Children.”
Musick emphasized that the character of the activities matters. “Mothers are doing different things with their children than fathers are, things that we know aren’t as enjoyable,” she said. “Playing with their kids is a particularly enjoyable experience for parents. And dads are doing more play as a share of the total amount of time they spend with their kids.”
The study draws on time-use diaries from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) well-being modules for 2010, 2012 and 2013. The researchers analyzed responses from roughly 12,000 parents who completed time diaries describing what they were doing during three randomly selected intervals in a 24-hour period. For each sampled activity, respondents rated how happy, sad, stressed and tired they felt and whether the activity felt meaningful.
By comparing parents’ emotional ratings for activities they did with their children versus the same types of activities done without children present, the study isolates how the presence of children changes parents’ moment-to-moment subjective well-being. The results show that, in general, parents report greater well-being when they are with their children than when they are not. However, mothers report slightly lower happiness, higher stress and greater fatigue in time with children than fathers do.
Those differences are not large, but they are consistent. The authors show that much of the gap can be explained by three factors: the specific activities mothers and fathers perform with children, whether another adult is present during child-related time, and differences in sleep and leisure. When mothers and fathers engage in comparable activities, or when mothers also have the presence of another adult and adequate sleep and leisure, the gender gap in momentary well-being narrows.
Musick suggests social expectations and gendered norms about parenting play an important role. Mothers may take on more of the onerous caregiving because society puts higher expectations on them, and those expectations make it difficult for mothers to scale back duties or to delegate routine tasks to partners. “Couples can try to work together to change how they parent, but that’s not really the solution,” she said. “The solution is that we collectively rethink what we expect of fathers and what we expect of mothers.”
About the research and source information
Source: Rebecca Valli, Cornell University
The analysis is based on nationally representative time diary data linked to respondents’ feelings in activities from the 2010, 2012 and 2013 well-being module of the American Time Use Survey (N = 12,163 persons and 36,036 activities). The authors report that parents generally experience greater subjective well-being when they are with their children than when they are not, but that mothers report less happiness, more stress, and greater fatigue in time with children than fathers. These patterns can largely be accounted for by the types of activities performed with children, the presence or absence of other adults, and differences in sleep and leisure time.
Original research: “How Parents Fare: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Subjective Well-Being in Time with Children” by Kelly Musick, Ann Meier, and Sarah Flood, published in the American Sociological Review. Published online September 2, 2016.
Abstract (study summary)
The trend toward more time-intensive, child-centered parenting in the United States is widely seen as beneficial for children, but implications for adults’ well-being are less clear. This study assesses multiple dimensions of parents’ subjective well-being in activities with children and examines how gendered patterns of time use contribute to differences between mothers’ and fathers’ experiences. Using nationally representative time diary data linked to momentary well-being reports from the American Time Use Survey well-being modules (2010, 2012, 2013), the authors find that parents generally report higher subjective well-being in activities with children than in comparable activities without children. Mothers, however, report less happiness, more stress, and greater fatigue in time with children than fathers. These gaps are modest and can be explained largely by differences in activity types, the presence of other adults, and disparities in sleep and leisure. The paper documents how contemporary parenting is woven differently into mothers’ and fathers’ daily lives.
“How Parents Fare: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Subjective Well-Being in Time with Children” — Kelly Musick, Ann Meier, and Sarah Flood, American Sociological Review, DOI: 10.1177/0003122416663917.