title: Fathers' Involvement in Child Health Care: Associations with Prenatal Involvement, Parents' Beliefs, and Maternal Gatekeeping.
abstract: Using data from 182 dual-earner couples experiencing the transition to parenthood, this study examined associations between prenatal involvement, gender role beliefs, and maternal gatekeeping and new fathers' involvement in child health care. Results indicated that prenatal father involvement was associated with both fathers' direct engagement in child health care and fathers' perceived influence in child health-related decision-making. Fathers also demonstrated greater direct engagement in child health care when mothers held more nontraditional beliefs about gender roles. Moreover, when mothers were more encouraging of fathers' involvement in childrearing, fathers felt more influential in child health-related decision-making, whereas when mothers engaged in greater gate closing behavior, fathers with more traditional gender role beliefs felt less influential in child health-related decision-making. This study suggests that fathers' prenatal involvement, mothers' beliefs, and maternal gatekeeping may play a role in the development of new fathers' involvement in child health care at the transition to parenthood.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology, CB#3270 Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270 zvara@live.unc.edu.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Zvara
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, 1787 Neil Ave, 135 Campbell Hall, Schoppe-Sullivan.1@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Sarah J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Schoppe-Sullivan
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, 1787 Neil Ave, 135 Campbell Hall, Kamp-Dush.1@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Claire M Kamp
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Dush
keywords: Father involvement; child health; coparenting; gender role beliefs; maternal gatekeeping; prenatal involvement