ABSTRACT
Abstract
We employed ecological, developmental and social psychological perspectives in analyses of parental involvement with school-age children. Using data from a short-term longitudinal study of 152 children (mean age = 10 years), we identified two groups of families, traditional and egalitarian, distinguished by the relative involvement of mothers and fathers in child-oriented activities. Analyses of background characteristics (i.e., parent income, work hours) were consistent with a social exchange explanation of the "antecedents" of parental roles. Analyses of role implications suggested that egalitarian roles were linked to women's parent-child and marital relationship satisfaction; men were more satisfied in traditional families. In turn, wives and husbands in the same family reported different levels of satisfaction. For children, incongruence between parents' work roles in and outside the family was associated with poorer adjustment: in traditional dual-earner families children reported more internalizing symptoms and poorer parent-child relationships. Further analyses of temporal patterns of parental involvement highlighted the significance of ecological and developmental considerations. Findings revealed cyclical patterns of change in parental activities across weekday and weekend days and between winter and summer months as a function of parent's and children's ties to institutions outside the family, namely work and school.
