Abstract

This study tests the hypotheses derived from three theoretical approaches to the determinants of parents’ involvement in childcare: economic and structural models, gender ideologies, and family systems theory. Two hundred and thirty-seven Israeli couples with three 40-monthold infants completed self-report questionnaires that measured the father’s and the mother’s socio-demographic and employment characteristics, gender ideologies, relationship quality and various forms of involvement in childcare. The findings provided evidence for a structural model, showing that fathers’ childcare hours were negatively related to the degree of overlap between the parents’ work hours. Partial support was also found for the gender ideology model, as the mother’s gender attitudes correlated with her hours of care and the distribution of childcare tasks. Weak support was found for the family systems theory. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing different forms of involvement in childcare as each is affected by a different set of determinants.