Fathers’ involvement in childcare in the United Kingdom: trends and social differences

Ursula Henz, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Fathers’ involvement in childcare has become a focus of much research since there is accumulating evidence about its beneficial effects on children’s, mothers’ and fathers’ well-being. Many time-use surveys have documented the increasing involvement of fathers in childcare during the past decades. This presentation will examine the trends in father involvement in childcare in the UK between the time of the UK Time Use Survey from 2000 (UKTUS 2000) and the soon to be released survey from 2013-14 (UKTUS 2013). The presentation will also examine differences in father involvement by father’s level of education and social class. The presentation will analyse father involvement in caring for children aged 14 years or younger. Only fathers who live with a partner are included. UKTUS 2000 comprises diaries of 1,064 fathers with the described characteristics. The sample of UKTUS 2013 is of the same order of magnitude as UKTUS 2010. The analyses will distinguish between routine and interactive childcare and also examine father’s time alone with a child and the time the father spends together with his partner and a child. The presentation will give descriptive statistics and results from regression analyses, the latter controlling for further characteristics of the couple.