ABSTRACT
This study considered mothers’ and fathers’ points of view with regard to mothers’ satisfaction with paternal behaviour. Couples in three different stages of the family life cycle were examined, and regression analyses confirmed the relevance of father-child and couple relationship characteristics for both parents’ views on mothers’ satisfaction with paternal behaviour. We found that mothers are more satisfied with the paternal behaviour of their partners than the fathers believe. This underestimation effect can be explained by differences in the origination of these views. Mothers refer to their views on the father’s willingness to spend time with the child (in the first and second subsamples), whereas fathers take into account their ability to establish and maintain a relationship with the child (in all three subsamples) when evaluating mothers’ satisfaction with paternal behaviour. The challenge of qualitatively valuable father involvement as reflected by the paternal view on the ability to establish and maintain a relationship with the child thereby seems to be harder to meet than the challenge of quantitatively valuable father involvement as reflected by the maternal view on the paternal willingness to spend time with the child. Therefore, fathers’ ratings on the maternal satisfaction with the paternal behaviour may turn out lower than mothers’.
