Parental care time in four European countries: comparing types and contexts

The intensity of parental investments in child care time is expected to vary across families with different norms and time-constraints. Additionally, it should also differ across countries, since the abilities of parents to harmonize family and work vary by national context. In our opinion, however, this question remains inconclusive for two main reasons: 1) only some countries have been studied from a comparative approach; 2) previous studies have not paid enough attention to the analysis of how the conditional effects of education and employment affect parental investments.In this paper we used nationally representative time-use data from Denmark, Flanders, Spain and the United Kingdom (N=4,031) to explore how employment and education predict variations in child care time. IN Britain and Spain employment has a strong negative effect on fathers’ child care, but a weaker one in Flanders and particularly in Denmark. In contrast, maternal employment has a strong negative impact in all four countries. Education increases child care time significantly only among Spanish mothers and fathers, as well as British mothers. Nonetheless, we find that college-educated mothers under similar time-constraints increase substantially their expected child care time in Britain, Flanders and Spain; for fathers we find a more mixed picture. Routine child care activities are more sensitive to both maternal and paternal employment than interactive child care activities. Finally, we observe that working a public sector job generally increases a total time allocated to parental care, controlling for several demographic and socioeconomic variables.

Who benefits from parental leave in Spain? : a life course analysis

This paper analyses the extent to which individual and workplacecharacteristics and regional policies influence the use and duration ofparental leave in Spain. The research is based on a sample of 125,165people, and 6,959 parental leaves stemming from the ‘Sample ofWorking Life Histories’ (SWLH), 2006. The SWLH consists of administrative register data which include information from threedifferent sources: Social Security, Municipality and Income TaxRegisters. We adopt a simultaneous equations approach to analyse theuse (logistic regression) and duration (event history analysis) ofparental leave, which allows us to control for endogeneity and censoredobservations. We argue that the Spanish parental leave scheme increases gender and social inequalities insofar as reinforces genderrole specialization, and only encourages the reconciling of work andfamily life among workers with a good position in the labour market(educated employees with high and stable working status).

Productivities, preferences, and parental child care

We study the interplay of preferences and market productivities on parenting, and show the preferences, when identified, provide a better explanation of caring decisions than has, so far, been demonstrated in the literature. We qualify the standard finding the parental education in a key determinant of care by showing important interaction effects with marital homogamy. We find that homogamy has opposite effects on child care and couple specialization for high and low educated parents. Identification has been made possible by a unique couple-based time diary study for Denmark

Explaining parental dedication to child care in Spain

The quality of the time dedicated to child care has potential positive effects on children’s life chances. However, the determinants of parental time allocation to child care remain largely unexplored, particularly in context undergoing rapid family change such as Spain. We assess two alternative explanations for differences between parents in the amount of time spent with children. The first, based in the relative resources hypothesis, links variation in time spent with children to the relative attributes (occupation, education or income) of one partner to the other. The second, derived from the social status hypothesis, suggests that variation in time spent with children is attributable to the relative social position of the pair (i.e. higher status couples spend more time with children regardless of within-couple difference).To investigate theses questions, we use a sample of adults (18-50) from the Spanish Time Use Survey (STUS) 2002-2003 (n=7,438). Limiting the analysis to adults who are married or in consensual unions, the STUS allows to assess both the quantity and quality of parental time spent with children. We find little support for the “relative resources hypothesis”. Instead, consistent with the “social status hypothesis”, we find that time spent on child care is attributable to the social position of the couple, regardless of between-parent differences in income of education.

Parental investments in children: how bargaining and educational homogamy affect time allocation

This study examines parental time investment in their children, distinguishing between developmental and non-developmental care. Our analyses centre on three influential determinants: educational background, marital homogamy, and spouses' relative bargaining power. We find that the emphasis on quality care time is correlated with parents' education, and that marital homogamy reduces couple specialization, but only among the highly educated. In line with earlier research, we identify gendered parental behaviour. The presence of boys is an important condition for fathers' time dedication, but primarly among lower educated fathers. To the extent that parental stimulation is decisive for child outcomes, our findings suggest the persistence of important inequalities. This emerges through our special attention to behavioural differences across the educational distribution among households.

Influence d'une hospitalisation prénatale sur les facteurs de stress parentaux lors d'une naissance prématurée [Influence of prenatal hospitalization on parental stressful experience in the case of a premature birth].

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the influence of prenatal hospitalization before a premature birth, on the parental stressful experience, parental symptoms of post-traumatic stress and quality of parent-infant interaction during the hospitalization in neonatology. POPULATION AND METHODS: Population: 51 preterm infants born and 25 full term infants control. Four groups: controls, premature without prenatal hospitalization, premature with a short (<8 days) prenatal hospitalization and premature with a long (≥8 days) prenatal hospitalization. Instruments: the Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS: NICU, Miles et al., 1993 [14]) and the Perinatal PTSD Questionnaire (PPQ, Quinnell and Hynan, 1999 [16]). RESULTS: When prenatal hospitalization of the mother occurred, parents acknowledged increased stress induced by the environmental factors during the infant's hospitalization. Furthermore, mothers from the group with a short prenatal hospitalization presented significantly more symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Parents presenting more symptoms of post-traumatic stress describe a significantly more difficult interaction with their infant in neonatology. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the necessity to deliver special care to women hospitalized shortly (<8 days) prior to the delivery of their premature baby. This group is at high risk of presenting post-traumatic stress symptoms, which could have a negative impact on the quality of parent-infant interactions.

Cobertura efectiva del manejo de la violencia contra mujeres en municipios Mexicanos: límites de la métrica

El estudio estimó la cobertura efectiva de los servicios en salud de primer nivel de atención para el manejo de la violencia doméstica contra la mujer en tres municipios mexicanos. Se estimó la prevalencia y severidad de la violencia usando una escala validada, y la cobertura efectiva con la propuesta de Shengelia y colaboradores, con modificaciones. Se consideró atención con calidad cuando hubo sugerencia de hacer la denuncia a las autoridades. La utilización y calidad de la atención fue baja en los tres municipios analizados, siendo más frecuente la utilización cuando hubo violencia sexual o física. La cobertura efectiva en Guachochi, Jojutla y Tizimín fue de 29.41%, 16.67% y cero, respectivamente. El indicador de cobertura efectiva tiene dificultades para medir eventos y respuestas no se fundamentan en modelos biomédicos. Los hallazgos sugieren que el indicador puede ser mejorado al incorporar otras dimensiones de la calidad.

Study of parental models: building an instrument for their exploration

Objective: This research presents the construction of an attributional questionnaire concerning the different parental models and factors that are involved in family interactions. Method: A mixed methodology was used as a foundation to develop items and respective pilots that allowed checking the validity and internal consistency of the instrument using expert judgment. Results: An instrument of 36 statements was organized into 12 categories to explore the parental models according to the following factors: parental models, breeding patterns, attachment bonds and guidelines for success, and promoted inside family contexts. Analyzing these factors contributes to the children’s development within the familiar frown, and the opportunity for socio-educational intervention. Conclusion: It is assumed that the family context is as decisive as the school context; therefore, exploring the nature of parental models is required to understand the features and influences that contribute to the development of young people in any social context.





Predation drives interpopulation differences in parental care expression.

Expressing parental care after oviposition or parturition is usually an obligate (evolved) trait within a species, despite evolutionary theory predicting that widespread species should vary in whether or not they express parental care according to local selection pressures. The lizard Eutropis longicaudata expresses maternal care only in a single population throughout its large geographical range, but why this pattern occurs is unknown. We used reciprocal translocation and predator exclusion experiments to test whether this intraspecific variation is a fixed trait within populations and whether predator abundance explains this perplexing pattern. Wild-caught female lizards that were reciprocally translocated consistently guarded or abandoned eggs in line with their population of origin. By contrast, most lizards raised in a common garden environment and subsequently released as adults adopted the maternal care strategy of the recipient population, even when the parents originated from a population lacking maternal care. Egg predation represents a significant fitness cost in the populations where females display egg-guarding behaviour, but guarding eggs outweighs this potential cost by increasing hatching success. These results imply that predators can be a driving force in the expression of parental care in instances where it is normally absent and that local selection pressure is sufficient to cause behavioural divergence in whether or not parental care is expressed.

My older sibling was drunk - younger siblings' drunkenness in relation to parental monitoring and the parent-adolescent relationship.

This study explored the links between having older siblings who get drunk, satisfaction with the parent-adolescent relationship, parental monitoring, and adolescents' risky drinking. Regression models were conducted based on a national representative sample of 3725 8th to 10th graders in Switzerland (mean age 15.0, SD = .93) who indicated having older siblings. Results showed that both parental factors and older siblings' drinking behaviour shape younger siblings' frequency of risky drinking. Parental monitoring showed a linear dose-response relationship, and siblings' influence had an additive effect. There was a non-linear interaction effect between parent-adolescent relationship and older sibling's drunkenness. The findings suggest that, apart from avoiding an increasingly unsatisfactory relationship with their children, parental monitoring appears to be important in preventing risky drinking by their younger children, even if the older sibling drinks in such a way. However, a satisfying relationship with parents does not seem to be sufficient to counterbalance older siblings' influence.

Obesity-related phenotypes are associated to parental longevity in a Swiss population-based study

PURPOSE. Longevity has been attributed to decreased cardiovascular mortality. Subjects with long-lived parents may represent a valuable group to study cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) associated with longevity, possibly leading to new ways of preventing cardiovascular disease. Purpose: Longevity has been attributed to decreased cardiovascular mortality. Subjects with long-lived parents may represent a valuable group to study cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) associated with longevity, possibly leading to new ways of preventing cardiovascular disease. Methods: We analyzed data from a population-based sample of 2561 participants (1163 men and 1398 women) aged 55--75 years from the city of Lausanne, Switzerland (CoLaus study). Participants were stratified by the number of parents (0, 1, 2) who survived to 85 years or more. Trend across these strata was assessed using a non-parametric kmean test. The associations of parental age (independent covariate used as a proxy for longevity) with fasting blood glucose, blood pressures, blood lipids, body mass index (BMI), weight, height or liver enzymes (continuous dependent variables) were analyzed using multiple linear regressions. Models were adjusted for age, sex, alcohol consumption, smoking and educational level, and BMI for liver enzymes. Results: For subjects with 0 (N=1298), 1 (N=991) and 2 (N=272) long-lived parents, median BMI (interquartile range) was 25.4 (6.5), 24.9 (6.1) and 23.7 (4.8) kg/m2 in women (P<0.001), and 27.3 (4.8), 27.0 (4.5) and 25.9 (4.9) kg/m2 in men (P=0.04), respectively; median weight was 66.5 (16.1), 65.0 (16.4) and 63.4 (13.7) kg in women (P=0.003), and 81.5 (17.0), 81.4 (16.4) and 80.3 (17.1) kg in men (P=0.36). Median height was 161 (8), 162 (9) and 163 (8) cm in women (P=0.005), and 173 (9), 174 (9) and 174 (11) cm in men (P=0.09). The corresponding medians for AST (Aspartate Aminotransferase) were 31 (13), 29 (11) and 28 (10) U/L (P=0.002), and 28 (17), 27 (14) and 26 (19) U/L for ALT (Alanin Aminotransferase, P=0.053) in men. In multivariable analyses, greater parental longevity was associated with lower BMI, lower weight and taller stature in women (P<0.01) and lower AST in men (P=0.011). No significant associations were observed for the other variables analyzed. Sensitivity analyses restricted to subjects whose parents were dead (N=1844) led to similar results, with even stronger associations of parental longevity with liver enzymes in men. Conclusion: In women, increased parental longevity was associated with smaller BMI, attributable to lower weight and taller stature. In men, the association of increased parental longevity with lower liver enzymes, independently of BMI, suggests that parental longevity may be associated with decreased nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Parental altruism under imperfect information: Theory and evidence

Can we reconcile the predictions of the altruism model of the familywith the evidence on intervivos transfers in the US? This paper expandsthe altruism model by introducing e ?ort of the child and by relaxingthe assumption of perfect information of the parent about the labormarket opportunities of the child. First, I solve and simulate a modelof altruism under imperfect information. Second, I use cross-sectionaldata to test a prediction of the model: Are parental transfers especiallyresponsive to the income variations of children who are very attached tothe labor market? The results suggest that imperfect information accountsfor several patterns of intergenerational transfers in the US.