Kiwi Dads at Play: What Influences Fathers' Childcare Involvement in New Zealand?
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Authors
Hennecke, Juliane
Meehan, Lisa
Pacheco, Gail
Turcu, Alexandra
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Abstract
Fathers' involvement in childcare plays a critical role in promoting gender equality in caregiving, supporting children's development, and enhancing men's own well-being. Yet, in many countries–including New Zealand–mothers still bear a disproportionate share of childcare responsibilities, contributing to what is known as the gender care gap. This paper examines what drives variation in paternal involvement in early childcare, using data from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) birth cohort. We identify key factors that help and hinder fathers' engagement, such as job-related constraints, household income dynamics, and personality traits. Importantly, the analysis shows that leave-taking and daily involvement are shaped by different drivers, with, for example, conscientious fathers being more involved in daily care while simultaneously being less likely to take paternity leave. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of what shapes fathers' roles in caregiving, with implications for families, employers, and policymakers.Description
Keywords
38 Economics, 3502 Banking, Finance and Investment, 3801 Applied Economics, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, Generic health relevance, 5 Gender Equality, 1401 Economic Theory, 1402 Applied Economics, Fatherhood, gender care gap, paternal leave taking, childcare
Source
New Zealand Economic Papers, ISSN: 0077-9954 (Print); 1943-4863 (Online), Informa UK Limited, 60(1), 97-120. doi: 10.1080/00779954.2025.2556870
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Rights statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.