Fathers' caregiving in low-income African–American and Hispanic–American families

Fathers' Caregiving in Low-incomeAfrican±American and Hispanic±American Families

Ziarat Hossain1*, Tiffany Field2, Jeffrey Pickens3,Julie Malphurs2 and Claudia Del Valle21Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO 81301, USA2University of Miami Medical School, Miami, USA3James Madison University, Harrisonburg, USA

The present study assessed fathers' and mothers' relativeinvolvement in infant caregiving tasks in 34 low-incomeAfrican±American and Hispanic±American families. Analysisshowed that involvement in childcare differed as a function ofthe gender of the parent. Fathers spent one half the time mothersdid in caregiving. However, fathers' and mothers' participation incaregiving did not vary as a function of ethnic group. African±American parents reported to have received more family supportthan Hispanic±American parents. Although relationships werenoted between age, income, education, length of marriage, socialsupport, and involvement in infant caregiving, these sociodemo-graphic variables did not predict parents' participation inchildcare. The results are discussed in relation to the preconceivednotion that low-income, minority fathers are `uninvolved'. '1997John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Early Dev. Parent. 6: 73±82 (1997)No. of Figures: 0. No. of Tables: 5. No. of References: 46.

Key words: fathers' caregiving; low-income; ethnic minority families

In the present study, African±American andHispanic±American fathers and mothers wereassessed for their involvement in infant care-giving, and social support they received inchildrearing tasks. Also, they study examinedwhether sociodemographic factors such asparental age, education, income, length ofmarriage, and social support were associatedwith their involvement in caregiving tasks. Inmany studies African±American and Hispanic±American fathers' caregiving involvement has

been viewed from the `father absence' and`machismo' perspectives (Cazenave, 1979;Mirande, 1991). Such a `deficit' approach hasindicated that fathers in ethnic families assume aperipheral role in the daily functioning of thefamily (Aldous, 1969). Scholars (e.g. Mirande,1991) explain that such an image of the role ofthe father in ethnic families has been reinforced bydominant societal stereotypes. The pathological±disorganizational views in examining the ethnicfathers' participation in early caregiving taskshave produced few insights into the strengthsand functional styles of these families. Also, thisconceptual bias disregards variations withinculture in fathers' caregiving involvement andhas led to a limited understanding of the father'srole in low-income African±American and

CCC 1057-3593/97/020073±10$17.50 Received 23 March 1996

'1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 18 June 1997

Early Development and Parenting, Vol. 6 (2), 73±82 (1997)

*Correspondence to: Z. Hossain, Department of Psychology,Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive, Durango, CO 81301,USA.Contact grant sponsor: NIMH.Contact grant numbers: MH00331; MH40779.

Hispanic±American families (Harrison, 1988;McAdoo, 1988; Roopnarine and Carter, 1992).

Researchers have been increasingly exploringpaternal involvement in childcare activities. Therelatively new interest in fathers is perhaps due towomen's changing roles in society (Parke, 1990),with more women assuming employment, hencedemanding men to becoming more involved inchildcare and other household chores (Bozett andHanson, 1991). Despite this increasing involve-ment, fathers still remain the secondary caregiverin many American families (Lamb, 1987).Researchers argue that fathers' interaction stylesmay be qualitatively different from those ofmothers (Lamb, 1977, 1981). For the most part,fathers in Euro-American families engage in moreplay activity and mothers engage in more soothingand basic caregiving tasks (Lamb, 1987), exceptprimary caregiver fathers who act more likemothers (Field, 1978). Such a gender differentia-tion in early interactions appears to be the caseacross cultures (Lamb, 1987; Roopnarine andCarter, 1992). That is, mothers do more caregivingtasks than fathers in all cultures.

Some researchers examined fathers' participationin primary caregiving within middle to lower-middle income families. For example, in two-parent Euro-American families in which themother was a homemaker, fathers spent about25% of the time mothers did in caregiving tasks,and in families in which mother was employed full-time, fathers spent about 33% of the time thatmothers did as caregivers (Pleck, 1985). In two-parent African±American families in which themother was employed part-time, fathers spentabout 43% of the time mothers did in primarycaregiving tasks, and in families in which themother was employed full-time, fathers spentmore than a third of the time mothers spent inbasic caregiving (Hossain and Roopnarine, 1994). Inthe Hossain and Roopnarine study, length of timecouples were married and communication withinthe family were the best predictors of paternalinvestment in caregiving activities. Very fewstudies have examined Hispanic±Americanfathers' involvement, but, for example, PuertoRican fathers living on the mainland were foundto invest over a third of the time mothers spend inprimary caregiving tasks (Roopnarine andAhmeduzzaman, 1993). Clearly, mothers in mostcultures spend more time as primary caregiversthan fathers.

Instead of examining the role African±Americanfathers play and the amount of time they spend in

caregiving, most of the studies have focused on thenegative consequences of absent African±American fathers. A few contemporary studiessuggest that men in African±American andHispanic±American families are far from unin-volved in childcare and other domestic chores(Ahmeduzzaman and Roopnarine, 1992; Ortiz-Archilla, 1992). Researchers have documentedthat African±American fathers share equally withtheir wives in decisions about childrearing activ-ities (McAdoo, 1979), are nurturing, loving, andsensitive to their children's needs (McAdoo, 1981),perceive the experience of fatherhood positivelyand share basic childcare tasks with their wives(Hyde and Texidor, 1988), appear to be accessibleand involved with their young children(Ahmeduzzaman and Roopnarine, 1992;Ericksen, Yancey and Ericksen, 1979; Hossainand Roopnarine, 1993), and show egalitarianismin household tasks (Ross, 1987). Moreover, greatereconomic security strongly influenced the father'scaregiving role in these studies (McAdoo, 1988;Roopnarine and Ahmeduzzaman, 1993).

Clearly, child and family scholars should moveaway from `deficit' perspectives to study fathers'roles in ethnic families. More positive methodsof ethnic family investigation may contribute tothe identification of both internal and externalsubsystems within ethnic families, which mayreflect cultural and structural±organizationaltendencies that shape family functioning (Allenand Majidi-Ahi, 1989). Therefore, there is a needto broaden our theoretical and methodologicalapproaches to studying early patterns of care-giving and socialization in various ethnic groupsin diverse cultural contexts (Roopnarine andCarter, 1992). The present research is couchedwithin an `adaptive±resilient' perspective tounderstand the wide range of factors that maycontribute to individual variations in fathers'involvement in infant caregiving tasks within thedomain of an ethnic subculture. Scholars inter-ested in teasing out the cultural specificity ofparent±child relationships have proposed thatadaptive±resilient or cultural±ecological modelsmay be more appropriate for studying ethnicfamilies (Belsky, 1984; Ogbu, 1985). In an attemptto continue this line of research on the father'srole in diverse cultural groups, and in view ofthe limited database on minority fathers' care-giving involvement, the present study examinedAfrican±American and Hispanic±Americanfathers' involvement with their young infants,time they spent as primary caregivers, and social

74 Z. Hossain, T. Field, J. Pickens et al.

Early Dev. Parent. 6: 73±82 (1997) '1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

support they received in their role as fathers.Additionally, we examined the relationshipbetween parental age, income, educational level,length of time couples were married, socialsupport, and fathers' and mothers' involvementin the care of young infants.

METHOD

Subjects

The participants in this study were 34 mother±father dyads from low socioeconomic statusAfrican±American and Hispanic±Americanfamilies recruited from a hospital well-baby clinic.Eighteen and 16 mother±father dyads were fromAfrican±American and Hispanic±American back-grounds, respectively. Also, it may be worthwhileto report that initially 40 families participated inthis study. A preliminary screening showed that sixfamilies out of the 40 were inter-racial couples and,therefore, were excluded from the study. The two-factor Hollingshead Index (range = 1±5; higherscores reflect lower socioeconomic status) wasused to determine participants' socioeconomicstatus (Beck et al., 1961). The mean score on thetwo-factor Hollingshead Index for the entiresample was 4.34 (SD = 0.6). All 34 couples whowere included in this study were US born. Sincesociodemographic data did not vary by ethnicgroup, these data for both ethnic groups werepooled and analysed in terms of fathers' andmothers' data. These data are presented in Table1. Fathers' mean age was 23 years, mothers' meanage was 20 years, and the mean number of yearsfathers and mothers completed education were 12and 11, respectively. The difference betweenmothers' and fathers' annual income was signifi-cant (t =77.73, p50.001). Most mothers (82%) werehomemakers, and 21% of the fathers were unem-ployed at the time of the survey. More than 56% ofthe couples were married and about 44% were notmarried but living together. The mean length oftime couples were in a relationship was more than 2years. All participants were biological parents oftheir infants. Infants' mean age was about 5months. The mean number of children in thefamily was two.

Procedures and Measures

Fathers and mothers completed the followingquestionnaires without consulting each other: (a)

Sociodemographic Questionnaire (SES); (b) Child CareScale (CCS); and (c) Index of Social Support (ISS).

Sociodemographic QuestionnaireThe SES contains 10 items concerning age, educa-tion, occupation, income, length of time coupleswere in the relationship, living/marital status, andthe child's age, gender, birth order and the numberof children in the family.

Child Care ScaleThe CCS was used to assess the degree to whichmothers and fathers are directly involved in basicchild care tasks (Hwang, 1987). The CCS has twosections: the first section of the scale is comprisedof 14 Likert-type scale items (rated from 1 to 4)designed to assess the degree to which mothersand fathers participate in primary caregivingactivities. Considering the nature of care, all 14items were grouped as six involvement variables:bedtime routine, physical care, feeding, soothing,singing to and playing with the infant. The secondsection consists of estimates of time (hours perday) spent feeding, cleaning and playing withtheir infants. Internal consistency for the entirescale was 0.96 (Spearman±Brown) in a study byHossain and Roopnarine (1993).

Index of Social SupportThe ISS (Trivette and Dunst, 1988) assessed thedegree to which parents received familial and non-familial support in their childrearing activities. ThisLikert scale contains 15 items grouped into threemajor sources of support: family, includingextended family members; extrafamilial sources(e.g. friends, neighbours, church members, co-workers); and institutional sources of assistance(e.g. baby-sitter/daycare/school). The reliabilitycoefficient (Spearman±Brown) for all three sources

Fathers' Caregiving 75

'1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Early Dev. Parent. 6: 73±82 (1997)

Table 1 Sociodemographic information of the sample

Mother (N = 34) Father (n = 34)Variables Mean Mean

Age 20.1 (2.9) 23.3 (4.7)Education (years

completed)11.0 (1.4) 12.0 (1.2)

Income (annual)* 2298 (2347.4) 10 143 (4851.5)Length of

relationship2.6 (1.7) 2.5 (1.5)

Infant age(months)

4.7 (1.7)

No. of children 2.0 (1.6)

*Income in US dollars.

of support was found to be satisfactory; theSpearman±Brown coefficients for the three sourcesof support were: family = 0.67; extrafamilial = 0.80;and institutional = 0.63 (Hossain and Roopnarine,1993; Roopnarine and Ahmeduzzaman, 1993).

RESULTS

Involvement in CaregivingThe mean ratings for mothers' and fathers'involvement in the six areas of childcare respon-sibility are presented in Table 2. A 2 (Gender-of-Parent)62 (Ethnic Group: African±American andHispanic±American) multivariate analysis ofvariance (MANOVA) using Wilk's lambdacriterion was conducted on the six variablesrelated to mothers' and fathers' involvement incaregiving. The analyses showed a significantmain effect for Gender-of-Parent (F(6,50) = 23.97,p50.001; Wilk's lambda = 0.26). As presented inTable 2, the significant gender-of-parentunivariate effects demonstrated that motherswere more involved in bedtime routine

(F(1,64) = 32.91, p50.001, physical care(F(1,64) = 115.46, p50.001, feeding the infant(F(1,64) = 29.99, p50.001) and soothing the infant(F(1,64) = 16.45, p50.001) than fathers. Mothersand fathers did not differ in singing to andplaying with their infants (Table 2). The multi-variate main effect for ethnic group was notsignificant. However, a Gender-of-Parent6EthnicGroup interaction was significant (F(6,50) = 2.96,p50.01; Wilk's lambda - 0.74). Post hoc analysisindicated that fathers in African±Americanfamilies were more likely to engage in thephysical care, feeding and soothing of theirinfants when they cried than were fathers inHispanic±American families (Table 3).

Time Spent in CaregivingThe data on the amount of time mothers andfathers spent per day in the three primarycaregiving tasks are presented in Table 4. A 2(Gender-of-Parent)62 (Ethnic Group: African±American and Hispanic±American) MANOVAusing Wilk's lambda criterion was conducted on



Table 2 Mothers' and fathers' relative involvement in caregiving activities

Mother (N = 34) Father (N = 34)Caregiving tasks Mean Mean p

Bedtime routine (R = 1±10) 6.6 (1.6) 4.4 (1.4) 50.001Physical care (R = 1±20) 14.5 (1.6) 9.1 (2.4) 50.001Feeding the infant (R = 1±5) 3.8 (0.3) 2.8 (0.9) 50.001Singing to infant (R = 1±5) 2.7 (0.9) 2.3 (0.9) NSPlaying with infant (R = 1±5) 3.5 (0.8) 3.4 (0.8) NSSoothing the infant (R = 1±10) 6.6 (1.3) 4.9 (1.9) 50.001

Gender-of-Parent effect: (F(6,59) = 20.88, p50.001; Wilk's lambda = 0.32).Note. Range of scale for each caregiving item is shown in parentheses.

Table 3 Mean ratings for African±American mothers' and fathers' involvement in caregiving activities and F valuesfor the Gender-of-Parent6Ethnic Group interaction effect

African±American Hispanic±American

Mother Father Mother Father Gender-of ParentCaregiving activ-ities M M M M F

6Ethnic Group

Bedtime routine 7.0 (1.3) 5.1 (1.8) 6.4 (1.7) 4.5 (1.4) 51 NSPhsyical care 14.2 (1.7) 10.7 (2.3) 14.5 (1.7) 8.8 (2.2) 7.16 50.005Feeding the infant 3.8 (0.4) 3.2 (0.7) 3.8 (0.4) 2.5 (0.9) 7.71 50.005Singing to infant 2.5 (0.9) 2.7 (1.0) 2.9 (1.0) 2.4 (1.0) 2.67 NSPlaying with infant 3.5 (0.7) 3.6 (0.6) 3.5 (0.8) 3.3 (0.8) 51 NSSoothing the infant 6.2 (1.6) 5.8 (1.9) 6.9 (1.3) 4.3 (1.6) 9.36 50.001

Gender-of-Parent6Ethnic Group effect: (F(6,50) = 23.97, p50.001; Wilk's lambda = 0.74).

time spent in caregiving activities: feeding, cleaningand playing with the infant. Only a main effect forGender-of-Parent was noted (F(3,52) = 7.83,p50.001; Wilk's lambda = 0.69). Post hoc analysesshowed that mothers spent significantly more timein feeding (F(1,63) = 27.04, p50.001) and cleaning(F(1,64) = 14.49, p50.001 the infant than fathers.The mothers and fathers did not differ in theamount of time they spent in playing with theirinfant. Overall, the fathers in this study estimatedthat they spent an average of 1.8 hours (SD = 1.3) inprimary caregiving each day, while the mothersestimated that they spent an average of 3.6 hours(SD = 1.8) per day. These two means differedsignificantly (F(1,63) = 22.21, p50.001).

Social SupportA 2 (Gender-of-Parent)62 (Ethnic Group:African±American and Hispanic±American) multi-variate analysis of variance (MANOVA) usingWilk's lambda criterion was conducted on thethree types of social support: family support;extrafamilial support and institutional support. Onlya main effect for Ethnic Group was noted(F(3,55) = 3.17, p50.05; Wilk's lambda = 0.85). Posthoc analyses showed that African±Americanparents reported receiving more family support(M = 9.4) than Hispanic±American parents did(M = 7.8) for childrearing. These two means weresignificantly different (F(1,59) = 4.82, p50.05).

Relationship Between Fathers' Family Support,Income, Education and Caregiving Activities

Since we observed no differences in age, income,education and length of time couples were

married as a function of ethnic group, the datafor African±American and Hispanic±Americanfamilies were combined for the correlation andregression analyses. The data were organized asmothers' data and fathers' data and were entered/analysed separately. Based on prior studies(Hossain and Roopnarine, 1994; Belsky, 1990),age, income, education, length of time marriedand social support were correlated with fathers'and mothers' involvement in six primary care-giving activities: bedtime routine; physical care;feeding; singing to; playing with; and soothing theinfant. Variables showing relatively highSpearman correlation coefficients were regressedon the six caregiving dependent measures. Theseresults, including R2 values obtained from themultiple regression equations, are presented asfactors related to maternal and paternal involve-ment (Table 5).

Factors Related to Maternal InvolvementThe Spearman correlations show significant posi-tive associations between maternal age andmothers' involvement in physical care; betweenmothers' education and mothers' involvement insoothing the infant; between family supportreceived and mothers' involvement in feeding theinfant; and between extrafamilial support andmother's involvement in play with infants. Asignificant negative association between familysupport and mothers' involvement in singing tothe infant was observed (Table 5). Despite theseassociations, the multiple regression analysesrevealed that none of these variables significantlypredict mothers' caregiving involvement in low-income African±American and Hispanic±American families.

Factors Related to Paternal InvolvementThe correlation coefficients in Table 5 showsignificant negative relationships betweenfathers' income and their involvement in bedtimeroutine and soothing the infant; and betweenfathers' education and soothing the infant.Significant positive associations were observedbetween number of years they had been marriedand their involvement in play with infants; andfathers' family support and singing to infants(Table 5). However, the multiple regression equa-tions showed that none of these variablessignificantly predicted fathers' involvement incaregiving activities.



Table 4 Amount of time mothers and fathers spent perday in primary caregiving

Mother(N = 34)

Father(N = 34)

Caregivingactivities Mean (hours) Mean (hours)

p

Feeding theinfant

3.7 (2.6) 1.1 (1.3) 50.001

Cleaning theinfant

2.8 (2.5) 1.0 (1.3) 50.001

Playing with theinfant

4.4 (2.4) 3.4 (2.1) NS

Overall 3.6 (1.8) 1.8 (1.3) 50.001

Gender-of-Parent Effect: (F(3,61) = 9.19, p50.001; Wilk'slambda = 0.69).

DISCUSSION

The present study provides a descriptive analysesof fathers' and mothers' involvement in caregivingtasks and of the support parents received in low-income African±American and Hispanic±American families. The results revealed thatfathers' and mothers' degree of involvement andthe amount of time they invested in caregivingtasks did not vary as a function of ethnicdifferences. Mothers and fathers did differ,however, in their involvement and the amount oftime they spent in direct caregiving activities. Thedata on fathers' and mothers' estimates of theirlevel of involvement in bedtime routine, physicalcare, feeding and soothing the infant showedparent gender differences. Mothers were moreinvolved in basic caregiving activities (bedtimeroutine, physical care, feeding and soothing theinfant) than were fathers. These findings areconsistent with reports from several cross-culturalstudies showing greater involvement of mothersthan fathers in direct caregiving (Hossain andRoopnarine, 1994; Lamb, 1987; Parke and Sawin,1975; Roopnarine and Ahmeduzzaman, 1993). Bycontrast, mothers and fathers did not differ in theirratings of their relative participation in singing toand playing with the infant. This later finding isconsistent with other work on African±Americanfamilies (Ahmeduzzaman and Roopnarine, 1992)but is different from Lamb's (1987) observationthat fathers were more involved in play activitythan mothers. This variation may be attributed tocultural differences since Lamb's findings werebased in Euro-American families in which mothers

and fathers differed in the amount of time theyinvested in playing with babies.

Although a main effect for ethnic group was notobserved especially with reference to caregiving, asignificant gender-of-parent and ethnic group inter-action indicated that African±American fatherswere more involved in the physical care, soothingand feeding the baby than were fathers in Hispanic±American families. We also observed African±American received significantly more socialsupport from family members and friends thanHispanic±American parents. As has been reportedin other studies, family support appears to be animportant factor in early parent±child socializations(Taylor et al., 1990), and African±American fathers,who received extended network support, showedhigh involvement with their children(Ahmeduzzaman and Roopnarine, 1992). Familyresources and extended support network have beena traditionally strong characteristic of African±American and Hispanic±American family dynamics(Sudarkasa, 1981; Mirande, 1991; Sanchez-Ayendez,1988). However, it is less clear why African±American fathers received more familial and extra-familial support regarding their involvement incaregiving than Hispanic±American fathers.However, this difference can be viewed by thecultural ideology of these two population groups.That is, both Hispanic±American and African±American cultures are supportive of fathers butmay encourage them to exhibit different attitudesand behaviours. Further research can find specificanswers to why African±American fathers are moreinvolved with their babies than Hispanic±Americanfathers within low-income families.



Table 5 Relationships between caregiving and sociodemographic and support variables

Sociodemo-graphic

Bedtime Physical Feeding Singing Playing Soothing

variables M F M F M F M F M F M F

Age 0.03 0.12 0.36** 0.07 0.02 0.23 0.08 0.11 0.08 0.07 0.22 0.22Income 0.22 0.35* 0.05 0.16 0.05 0.27 0.18 0.04 0.07 0.18 0.13 0.61***Education 0.01 0.28 0.02 0.01 0.10 0.04 0.15 0.16 0.01 0.18 0.30* 0.47***Length 0.01 0.11 0.03 0.18 0.13 0.15 0.07 0.02 0.19 0.37** 0.01 0.05Family support 0.13 0.02 0.13 0.18 0.36** 0.16 0.29* 0.38** 0.26 0.19 0.02 0.22Extrafamilial

support0.11 0.28 0.11 0.03 0.20 0.02 0.19 0.20 0.38** 0.09 0.05 0.03

Institutionalsupport

0.02 0.14 0.26 0.09 0.02 0.03 0.15 0.29 0.26 0.03 0.14 0.10

R2 0.17 0.21 0.28 0.30 0.19 0.22 0.11 0.38 0.26 0.32 0.26 0.42

***p50.001; **p = 0.01; *p50.05.M = mother; F = father.

In our study, socioeconomically disadvantagedfathers estimated that they spent about 49% of thetime their wives did in primary caregiving. Otherdata indicate that fathers in middle-incomeAfrican±American families spend 40% as much astheir wives invest in caregiving (Hossain andRoopnarine, 1993; Roopnarine andAhmeduzzaman, 1993). Middle-income Euro-American fathers have been estimated to investabout 33% as much time as their wives do incaregiving activities (Pleck, 1985). Similarly, severalcross-national studies (e.g. Russell and Radin, 1983)have reported that fathers invest about 25% as muchtime in caregiving as mothers do. The differencebetween fathers' and mothers' reported time invest-ment in caregiving in African±American andHispanic±American families in our sample wastherefore less than differences between mothers andfathers in other groups. Clearly, fathers in oursample are as involved with their babies as fathersin middle-class families and maybe even more so(Hossain and Roopnarine, 1994; Pleck, 1985).

The current findings on low-income African±American and Hispanic±American fathers'involvement in caregiving activities are clearlydifferent from many of the earlier findings thatsuggested that African±American fathers wereuninvolved with their children. Several considera-tions are in order to address this difference.Traditionally, African±American fathers' role hasbeen studied using `father-absence' paradigm, andthe Latino father has been pictured as a dominant,cold and distant authority (Mirande, 1991). Thefather-absence model has seldom focused onsocial, political and economic discriminationsthat have historically limited African±Americanfathers' access to status and economic resources.These socioeconomic barriers might have nega-tively influenced the African±American father'srole in the rearing of his children. Within the lastfew decades, ethnic scholars have been criticizingthe negative characterizations of fathers in thefamily and suggesting a more resilient view tostudy father's role within ethnic minority families.Specifically, contemporary African±Americanresearchers have articulated that the early researchdid not focus on the influence of socioeconomicand racial barriers that help maintain the marginalstatus of many African±American men withinsociety (McAddo, 1988; McLoyd, 1990).

Additionally, recent changes in various socialforces may have significant influences on fatheringbehaviours within African±American andHispanic±American families. We are aware that

the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s has createdan environment of hope and entitlement leadingmany African±Americans to view their family livesand relationships more positively. Similarly, theReverend Jesse Jackson actively encourages andcounsels African±American to regain their strongsense of family and community. Many mediapresentations of African±American families areproviding messages on involved fatherhood. Forexample, the Cosby Show provides role models for asensitive and involved father in the family.Furthermore, using Muslim philosophy of astrong male role in the family, MinisterFarrahkhan advocates and invites African±American men to be more involved with theirfamilies. These social forces contain and relaypowerful messages of involved fatherhood to themembers of the African±American community.Supporting the role of the father, these messagesmay reinforce African±American men to be moreinvolved in caregiving and household tasks andencourage social scientists to explore African±American fathers' role within a more adaptiveframework.

The adaptive-resilient perspective focuses on thefamily strength and cultural context of parent±child interactions (Ogbu, 1988). Therefore, it isimportant that instead of focusing on the negativeconsequences of absent father, scholars should payattention to the role African±American fathersmight play in the rearing of their children. Morerecently, researchers (Roopnarine andAhmeduzzaman, 1993; Hossain and Roopnarine,1994; Hyde and Texidor, 1988; McAdoo, 1981;Ross, 1987) have reported involved fathering andan egalitarian pattern in family decision makingwithin two-parent African±American andHispanic±American families. Similar to thesefindings, we find that low-income ethnic minorityfathers in our sample are far from beinguninvolved with their families.

We find that mothers and fathers in our sampledid not differ in their involvement in playingwith infants, but fathers invested more time inplaying with children than for direct caregivingtasks. Fathers in our sample were three timesmore likely to invest time in playing than incleaning or feeding their young children. Such atendency is consistent with the assertion thatwhile mothers are the primary caregivers for thebaby, fathers are more available for play with theinfant than for primary caregiving tasks(Bronstein, 1988; Hossain and Roopnarine, 1994;Lamb, 1987; Pleck, 1985).



In general, mothers and fathers in our studydisplayed a traditional pattern in performing directchildcare tasks, and fathers' estimates showed thatthey were as involved as fathers in other culturalgroups (see Pleck, 1985; Russell and Radin, 1983).This observation has an important significanceespecially with reference to the relationship thatexists between parents' employment and theirinvolvement in childcare. Scholars are paying agrowing attention to the relationship betweenparents' employment and their involvement in thefamily. It is often reported that fathers tend toparticipate more in childcare activities whenmothers are employed in the paid labour market(Coltrane, 1996; Hoffman, 1989; Russell, 1987). Atpresent, we did not focus on how fathers' involve-ment was influenced as a function of maternalemployment as many of the participants wereunemployed at the time of interview. However, inlight of the prior findings, we speculate thatmother's participation in paid employment mayfurther increase fathers' involvement in childcarewithin low-income African±American andHispanic±American families. Considering the rela-tively small sample size and the fact that manyparents in the present study were unemployed,more carefully designed future research will help usunderstand the degree to which parent's employ-ment is related to fathers' involvement in childcarewithin low-income ethnic families.

Like some previous studies (e.g. Taylor et al.,1990), the correlational analyses in this studyappear to indicate that parental age, income,education, length of marriage, family and extra-familial support are related to parents'involvement in caregiving tasks. The correlationsanalyses suggest that older mothers are moreinvolved in the physical care of the infant; andmore educated mothers tend to soothe the babymore. Similarly, the more social support mothersreceive from family members and friends, themore likely they are to be involved in feeding andplaying with infants. These findings may indicatethe importance of timing of parenting for mothersin low-income African±American and Hispanic±American families. Before becoming parents, weneed to attain our `social education, and occupa-tional timetable' (Parke, 1995, p. 84) that mayprepare us to be involved parents. Prior researchsuggests that about 20% of African±Americanchildren are born to unmarried adolescents(Cowan and Cowan, 1992). Therefore, correla-tional analyses suggest that the sociodemographicreadiness is especially relevant to African±

American teenagers who are at risk for earlyparenthood.

For fathers, the longer they are in a relationship,the more likely they are to play with their infants.Unlike claims from other researchers (Ericksonand Gecas, 1991), we find that education andincome were negatively correlated with the levelof fathers' investment in bedtime routine andsoothing their infants. This may be due to the factthat many fathers in our sample were unem-ployed, and therefore, were more available forinteraction with their children (Caplovitz, 1979).Consistent with this argument, the less educatedand low-income fathers in this study might havemore time to devote to caregiving activities, such abedtime routine and soothing their infants.

Despite these relationships, regression analysesshowed that these variables were not significantpredictors for parents' involvement in early care-giving activities in low-income African±Americanand Hispanic±American families. In addition, someof the associations appear to portray a lessconsistent pattern. For example, family supportreceived was negatively related to mothers' singingbut positively associated with fathers' singing tobaby. It remains difficult to explain the fact thatalthough some sociodemographic variables arecorrelated with caregiving, these variables do notsignificantly predict maternal or paternal involve-ment in caregiving activities. In this study, thecorrelation and regression analyses do not provideany clear-cut picture of the factors that may beassociated with low-income African±American andHispanic±American parents' involvement in earlycaregiving. These findings are primarily correla-tional in nature and the assumptions behind thecorrelation statistic do not make it appropriate topredict any causal links between the sociodemo-graphic factors considered in the correlationalanalyses, and the low-income African±Americanand Hispanic±American parents' involvement inchildcare.

CONCLUSIONS

In the present study, we find that fathers arehighly involved with their babies, but the divisionof basic childcare tasks between husbands andwives within low-income African±American andHispanic±American intact families is not egali-tarian. Mothers were more involved and spent agreater amount of time in primary caregiving tasksthan fathers. These findings are in accord with the



typical role differentiation framework (Parsons andBales, 1955) in the distribution of caregiving tasks,which states that mothers are more involved inchildcare than fathers across cultures. Again, ourdata suggest that low-income African±Americanand Hispanic±American families in the presentstudy are no exception in this regard.

The current findings cast doubts about tradi-tional notions portraying uninvolved fathering inlow-income African±American and Hispanic±American families. In fact, most of the previousstudies were conducted on single-parent ethnicfamilies. These studies often ignored the within-culture differences in parents' involvement in thefamily and attempted to overgeneralize theirfindings. In addition, instead of examining howAfrican±American and Hispanic±Americanfamilies adapted to different socioeconomic andhistorical conditions, these ethnic families wereviewed as dysfunctional (Mirande, 1991).Realizing the basic tenets of the adaptive±resilientperspective, the present research examined low-income fathers' role in the family within their owncultural contexts. Instead of focusing on the lack ofinvolvement, the present study attempted toexplore `how much' fathers were involved withtheir babies. This research finds that low-incomeAfrican±American and Hispanic±American fatherswere involved in the family. One significance ofthis finding is that scholars should emphasizeadaptive approaches in studying ethnic minorityfamilies from different socioeconomic back-grounds (Ogbu, 1985).

Although parents in our study may not berepresentative of low-income ethnic communitiesas the sample was obtained from a well-babyclinic, the current findings illuminate importantdifferences among various ethnic groups of low-income urban families. Also, our findings shouldhelp us to re-address many of the `negativecharacterizations' of fathers' involvement withinlow-income ethnic families (Parke, 1996). Otherimplications of this study are that intervention andservice agencies, counsellors and policy-makersshould become aware of the stereotypessurrounding minority fathers' involvement in thefamily and consider sociohistorical and culturalcontext in providing child and family services fordifferent ethnic families.

Future studies may attempt to determine factorspredicting caregiving outcomes and how `highlyinvolved' fathers differ from `less involved' fathersin infant caregiving in low-income single-parentversus dual-parent African±American and

Hispanic±American families. Also, future researchcan explore how gender of infant influencesparents' involvement in early caregiving tasks inlow-income ethnic families.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the students who helped withdata collection and the mothers and fathers fortheir participation. This research was supportedby an NIMH Research Scientist Award MH00331and NIMH Research Grant MH40779 awarded toTiffany Field. We also thank Drs Beverly Chewand Janet Jones for their valuable comments on anearlier version of this manuscript. Reprints can berequested from the authors at the Department ofPsychology, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive,Durango, CO 81301, USA.

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Fathers' caregiving in low-income African–American and Hispanic–American families