Within Family Patterns of Relative Parental Involvement Across Two Generations of Swedish Parents

This prospective longitudinal study investigated father involvement relative to mother involvement in parent dyads across two generations from the same family. Relative parental involvement was operationalized using measures of how much parents shared parenting responsibilities and to whom their children turned preferentially in various situations. We hypothesized mean level increases towards more equal involvement for fathers and mothers across generations as well as intergenerational continuity of within-family patterns for both aspects of parental involvement. The longitudinal study involved 144 families and their first-born children, followed since 1982. The analyses involved the families of the 74 children who were parents themselves by age 33. Father involvement was lower than mother involvement in both generations. Results revealed mean level changes towards more equal sharing of responsibilities in the second generation, but no intergenerational changes in the likelihood that children would be more likely to turn to their fathers in various situations. There was intergenerational continuity within families in child preferences but not in the sharing of responsibilities. Together these findings imply that child preferences are related to within-family influences whereas other factors affect parents' sharing of responsibilities.