The relative integration of fathers into the parental unit clearly poses numerous conceptual and methodological challenges despite the considerable progress that has been made in this area. Important social changes that have occurred over a relatively short period of time have resulted in a redefinition of parental roles which supports the…

Children's time use--and specifically the time they spend on household chores--is an important arena for understanding social change. However, few studies accurately depict the multiple factors influencing children's household labor, including parent's and children's available time and parent's levels of work/family stress. We address these gaps…

Interviewed Australian and Canadian mothers about the assignment of either routine or specially requested household work to their 9- to 14-year-old sons and daughters. Found that routine work was positively correlated with older children's concern for family members. There was no correlation between household work and prosocial behavior toward…

Using data from the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Survey, we study the role that socioeconomic factors play in mothers' time choices. We estimate a four-equation system in which the dependent variables are the minutes used in home production, active leisure, market work, and child caregiving. Our results show that mothers' caregiving time…

In two studies, mothers and fathers rated the ease of making a work request of a partner or child, and children commented on making a work request of a parent or sibling. Analysis of responses yielded four types of task groups: male, mothers', mothers' and children's, and open. (BC)