Of Marmosets and Men (Brout, Margrone, Silverstein, Aurbach)

2010-08-26T00:43:00.000-07:00

OF MARMOSETS AND MEN: TRIPLET FAMILIES AS AN ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT THAT GENERATES HIGH FATHER INVOLVEMENT

This study explored the relevance of a theoretical framework that predicts male investment in offspring in nonhuman primates for understanding paternal involvement in human fathers. We explored the research question: Do the increased demands for childcare in triplet families provide an ecological context that leads to relatively high paternal involvement? The article reports findings based on 20 families, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Although most of the fathers were the single or primary bread-winners, their high level of involvement was more characteristic of fathers in dual-earner families. Paternal involvement began early, i.e. during their wife's pregnancy, and was comprehensive, i.e. extended to virtually all childcare tasks. In addition, many of the fathers expressed work-family conflicts more typically reported by working mothers. Thus the study's findings provide some support for the Reciprocity Hypothesis, a theoretical framework based in behavioral ecology. Keywords: triplet fathers, reciprocity hypothesis, nonhuman primates.

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Publication: Fathering
Author: Brout, Jennifer
Date published: January 1, 2010

Paternal involvement is a complex issue in the field of fathering studies. Fathering researchers continue to struggle with conceptualization, definition, and measurement. Lamb, Pleck, Levine, and Charnov (1987) differentiated three different constructs of fathering: accessibility, engagement, and responsibility. Palkovitz (1997), in an effort to expand the concept of fathering, identified 15 general categories of paternal involvement, ranging from direct interaction to cognitive manifestations and symbolic interactions. In contrast to many other theorists, Palkovitz included providing economic resources in his conceptualization of involvement.

In an edited anthology, Marsiglio, Roy, and Fox (2005) expanded the conceptualization of fathering by focusing on how fathering is expressed differently, depending on context. The contexts illuminated by these authors included divorced, non-residential fathers, fathers in prison, fathers at war, and fathers on the ball field teaching their children to play catch. Pleck (2007) attempted to synthesize many of the various approaches by using a typology that included emotional warmth, decision-making and monitoring.

The field has also struggled with how to measure fathering. Some authors propose using absolute time fathers spend in caregiving. Others prefer using a proportional measure that compares father involvement to the amount of time mothers (and other caregivers) spend. Measuring instruments include time diaries, observational measures, and interview protocols administered to both mothers and fathers (see Pleck, 2007 for a review). Marsiglio, Day, and Lamb (2000) have reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches. These authors concluded that, because of the diversity of ethnocultural traditions, life course patterns, and residency contexts, multiple methods and multiple informants are necessary.

Because a consensus about conceptualization, definition, and measurement does not yet exist, comparing data across studies is difficult. In general, the research data suggest that average levels of engagement and accessibility in the U.S. have increased over the past 25 years, although the absolute amount of change is small. Another consistent finding is that, on average paternal involvement is somewhat higher in dual-earner, than in single earner families (Pleck, 1997).

In addition to the complexity involved in conceptualization and measurement, understanding the variables that contribute to higher levels of father involvement has proven difficult. Lamb, Pleck, and their colleagues (Lamb et al., 1987; Pleck, 1997; Pleck, Lamb, & Levine, 1986) created a model that included several predictors of levels of paternal involvement: motivation (especially men's adherence to a traditional gender role), skills and self-confidence, social supports (e. g., mothers' attitudes, social networks) and stress, and institutional policies (e. g. workplace benefits). All of these variables have been shown to affect paternal involvement. McBride, Schoppe, Ho, and Rane (2004) assessed this model using an existing data set collected in 1997 that included data from children and their primary and secondary caregivers. They found that gender role was the most consistent and powerful predictor. Those men who thought that the fathering role included more than simply providing financial resources reported more involvement overall.

Pleck (1997) reported that links between socioeconomic status/race/ethnicity, and levels of accessibility and engagement were weak and/or inconsistent across studies. He also reported that studies in the 1990s replicated earlier conclusions (see for example, Barnett & Baruch, 1988) that fathers' proportion of total parental time spent with children is higher when mothers are employed. Studies have also consistently shown that the number of hours that fathers work affected their level of engagement and accessibility (see Chuang, Lamb, Hwang, 2004). Pleck (1997) concluded that no single variable was predominant and consistent. Rather, associations with levels of paternal involvement vary in different contexts.

This explosion of scholarship has emerged against a backdrop of two contrasting theories about parenting that pervade both popular culture and scholarly discourse. The first, which is commonly known as the essentialist hypothesis, argues that men and women are biologically and psychologically different, and therefore fathering and mothering are unique parenting activities.

The essentialist hypothesis is derived from evolutionary biology theory (Tri vers, 1972) that proposed that male and female mammals have contrasting mating, and therefore parenting, strategies. Male mammals maximize their evolutionary fitness by impregnating as many females as possible, investing a small amount of energy in parenting any individual offspring. Female mammals in contrast invest a large amount of energy in pregnancy and lactation, and are therefore motivated to invest a corresponding amount of time and energy in parenting. Evolutionary psychologists (see for example, Archer, 1996; Buss, 1995) have extended Trivers' hypothesis about mammals to all primates across multiple ecological contexts.

Using this theoretical perspective, neoconservative social scientists have argued that the two-parent, heterosexual family with distinct, gendered parenting roles is the best context for raising children (Blankenhorn, 1995; Popenoe, 1996). They have further recommended that public policy focus on supporting heterosexual marriage and the traditional gendered division of labor. Their theoretical perspective justifies discrimination against same-sex marriage, and encourages women to remain out of the workforce in order to focus on childcare, especially for infants and young children.

The contrasting perspective, known as the social constructivist hypothesis, is based on behavioral ecological theory (Hrdy, 1997; Smuts & Gubernick, 1992). This hypothesis argues that male and female parenting behaviors among primates are extremely plastic and vary based on ecological context, rather than biological determinants. Social scientists (Haraway, 1989; Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999) have expanded this argument to propose that mothering and fathering among human primates (with the exception of pregnancy, parturition, and lactation) can be interchangeable, rather than distinct, biologically determined roles.

The corollary to this hypothesis is that many different family structures can provide positive contexts for child development. From this perspective, there is no "one right way" to raise children. Rather government policy should support all kinds of families including dual earner, cohabiting, gay and lesbian, and single mother/father families. In addition, mothers should not necessarily be encouraged to withdraw from the workforce. Instead, family policies should be in place to support both men and women in both their family and work roles.

We approach the study of fatherhood from a social constructivist perspective (Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999). We agree with Marsiglio et al. (2000) that fathering identity is constructed through a reciprocal process that is negotiated by fathers, mothers, and children, and that is constrained or encouraged depending upon the particular context in which it occurs. Although we agree with Palkovitz (1997), that there are many other behaviors that may constitute involvement, our focus here is on involvement in terms of engagement. Our focus on direct interaction is supported by Sarkadi, Kristiansson, Oberklaid, and Bremberg (2008) who, in their review of longitudinal studies examining the effect of father involvement on children's developmental outcomes, concluded that overall, research provided support only for direct interaction as the specific form of effective father involvement.

Our interest in the importance of context led us to the current study which explores whether a theoretical framework that was originally developed to explain paternal investment among nonhuman primates, the Reciprocity Hypothesis (Smuts & Gubernick, 1992), might provide a theoretical framework for understanding variations in paternal involvement in human families.

The Reciprocity Hypothesis

The common explanatory frameworks for examining human paternal involvement have been evolutionary biology and social science, especially developmental and social psychology. Too often, these frameworks have been conceptualized as a competing "nature vs. nurture" debate. Behavioral ecology, in contrast, is an academic discipline that examines a matrix of both biological and contextual variables, thus integrating evolutionary and social science perspectives.

Hoffert and Anderson (2003) used this type of framework to explore factors affecting levels of paternal involvement. They examined the effect of both biological fatherhood and marital context on fathering, comparing four groups of men: married and unmarried biological fathers, and married and unmarried cohabiting partners (step-fathers). Their findings indicated that the most effective predictor of father involvement was a combination of biological and contextual variables, i.e. biological relationship to the child, marital context, age of child, and fathers accepting financial responsibility.

The Reciprocity Hypothesis, developed by Smuts and Gubernick (1992), explores a similar matrix of both biological and contextual variables on nonhuman primate male investment in offspring. Paternal investment is a term from evolutionary biology that has a complex meaning that includes, but is not limited to, paternal involvement (see Hewlett, 1992). For the purposes of this article, we are using Smuts' and Gubernick's concept to refer only to paternal involvement. These authors reviewed a wide variety of research on nonhuman primate species in order to illustrate how contrasting ecological contexts generated varying levels of male involvement, across a variety of biological species. For example, they compared gorillas, animals living in an ecological context characterized by one male living with multiple females (where biological paternity is certain); to savannah baboons where many males compete for mating opportunities with many females, and therefore paternity is uncertain. In the gorilla context, the females have no benefits to offer the silverback male. Because he is the only male in the group, he has no competitors, either for mating or for dominance. Therefore, the females cannot offer him exclusive mating privileges, or political alliances to aid in his struggle for dominance.

Baboon males, in contrast, have to compete for both their place in the male dominance hierarchy and also for mating access. In this context, females can offer the males political alliances to help in their dominance struggles, and also mating preferences. In exchange for these benefits, males offer females relatively high involvement with infants. The baboon context of mutual benefit exchange generates significantly higher male involvement with infants than the gorilla context where mutual benefits are absent

Marmosets illustrate the second ecological context, i.e., that paternal involvement increases when males' participation is essential to the survival of offspring. Marmosets are tiny, nonhuman primates that live in monogamous pairs and always bear twins. Because of the marmoset mother's small size, and because she must nurse two infants simultaneously, 100% of her time and energy must be spent searching for food and feeding herself in order to produce enough breast milk for two infants. In this ecological context, the fathers assume all other childcare, including eating the amniotic sac. Wthout this exceedingly high level of paternal involvement, the infants would perish.

In response to this wide-ranging review of the literature, Smuts and Gubernick (1992) developed the Reciprocity Hypothesis predicting that paternal investment will be high in two specific ecological contexts:

1 . when males and females have mutual benefits to exchange; and/or

2. when higher levels of paternal investment can enhance the survival of offspring.

There is some limited evidence suggesting that the Reciprocity Hypothesis may be an appropriate theoretical framework for explaining variations in human paternal involvement in terms of the mutual benefits component. In this article we focus on economic resources and childcare/housework as the media for exchange between spouses. However, we recognize that sex, power, status, and companionship are also resources/benefits available for spousal exchange.

Social science research has consistently documented varying levels of father involvement, depending on family structure and economic stability (Erikson & Gecas, 1991; Hamer, 2005; McLloyd, 1998). For example, unemployed fathers who cannot provide economic benefits tend to be dislocated, i.e. uninvolved with their children. As a man's salary increases above the poverty level, paternal involvement tends to increase. Middle-class, married families in which mothers engage in paid employment have higher levels of father involvement than families in which fathers are the sole breadwinner. Working class fathers in dual shift families, where mothers' and fathers' incomes are similar, generally have a high level of involvement. As the father's income rises, paternal involvement remains high if the mother's income is also high. Whereas when mothers' incomes are a small or non-existent percentage of total family income, such as in high-income families, father involvement is low. These examples illustrate some of the complex matrix of factors affecting father involvement.

We believe that dual-earner families represent a human primate example of the mutual benefits component specified in the Reciprocity Hypothesis. In dual-earner families, working mothers have earned income to exchange for higher paternal involvement. In contrast, non-working mothers in single-earner families have no income, and thus no resources to exchange. Thus as the Reciprocity Hypothesis predicts, paternal involvement is relatively high in dual earner families. In dual shift families, where the mother's income represents a higher proportion of total family income, father involvement reaches its highest level. In upper middle class families where father income is highest and mothers contribute relatively little economic benefit, the father replaces his direct involvement with paid help.

Using behavioral ecology as our theoretical framework, we designed the current study to explore the extrapolation of the "survival enhancement" component of the Reciprocity Hypothesis to human families. Triplet families, like marmoset families, represent an extreme sample. We reasoned that, because of the extraordinary demands of caring for three infants/young children, high father involvement would greatly enhance the health and development of the children.

In this article we report findings based on a sample of 20 families with triplets, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. We conclude by considering the clinical and public policy implications of the findings.

Methodology

Because of the difficulty of accurately measuring father involvement, we chose a mixed methods design: a conjoint qualitative interview and a quantitative questionnaire (the Daily Routine Scale: Mothers ' and Fathers 'Attributions devised by Bonney, Kelly, & Levant, 1999) that listed specific childcare and housework tasks and was completed separately by mothers and fathers. We hoped that a mixed methods approach would use both the quantitative and qualitative data to triangulate the construct of father involvement.

Sampling Procedure

Qualitative research is designed to generate theories, rather than to test hypotheses. The current study describes one kind of qualitative research, grounded theory. The aim of grounded theory research is to develop transferable theories, rather than gener alizable hypotheses (Strauss & Corbin, 1994). Grounded theory uses a technique called theoretical sampling. The first study generates hypotheses about a specific phenomenon. Then each new research sample is used to refine the theory.

The larger research project in which the current study is embedded has been studying the theoretical construct of parental role sharing. To date, we have studied that construct in five samples of dual-earner, heterosexual, married families, and one sample of gay fathers. Our findings suggest that even in dual-earner families where wives earn almost as much as their husbands, mothers continue to shoulder twice the burden of childcare as their husbands. In the gay father sample, responsibility was shared more equitably between the partners.

Theoretical sampling led us to choose to study a sample of triplet fathers in order to develop further our hypotheses about factors that contribute to increased paternal involvement in heterosexual couples. Triplet fathers are an example of an extreme case sample because the simultaneous presence of three same-aged children requires higher than usual levels of parental care.

We used a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. Convenience sampling means recruiting individuals that are accessible, e.g., members of parenting support groups. Snowball sampling means starting with a convenience sample of a few research participants and asking them to recruit others. One of the authors is the mother of triplets and belonged to "Mothers of Supertwins," which is a national support group for triplet families. The sample was derived from contacts in this group, and these, in turn, were asked to contact more participants. The authors knew none of the participants.

Qualitative Data Collection and Coding Procedures

The qualitative data were collected through semi- structured interviews conducted by the first two authors under the supervision of the third author. The first author was a mother of triplets, who introduced herself as such. The second author was a single woman without children. The qualitative interview included 14 questions. Because our concern was with direct paternal interaction, we have reported the data that focused on parental role sharing after the triplets were born. These data emerged mainly in response to the question "Describe how you (addressed to the couple) are dividing and sharing parenting responsibilities. Take me through a typical day." On Table 1 , we also report the responses to questions asking for concrete information, such as whether the triplets were premature; whether they were the result of fertility treatments, or were spontaneous. We have not reported other questions that asked the parents to be self reflective, for example to reflect on the ways in which being a parent had changed their sense of themselves. The complete set of questions is available from the third author.

The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. Each transcript was analyzed and coded based on a grounded theory analysis developed by Auerbach and Silverstein (2003). The grounded theory technique generated three levels of analysis. Relevant text (text that was pertinent to our research question) was organized into Repeating Ideas (words and phrases used regularly by the participants). The Repeating Ideas were then grouped into a second more abstract level of Themes. Themes represent more general ideas implicit in the Repeating Ideas. The Themes were then organized into Theoretical Constructs, which provide a theoretical link between the participants' ideas and psychological theory. Finally, the Theoretical Constructs were organized into two Theoretical Narratives, one that tells the mothers' story and one that describes the fathers' experience.

Each stage of data analysis involved multiple coders in order to ensure that the procedure that was transparent (i.e., another researcher can know and check what has been done); communicable (i.e., the categories make sense to the participants as well as to other researchers); and coherent (i.e., categories were both internally consistent and reflected the individual differences in the group being examined). Our grounded theory coding process begins with a bottom up approach that identifies excerpts of relevant text, which are then organized into repeating ideas that are then clustered into themes. The two primary authors coded all of the interview transcripts separately, and identified relevant text, repeating ideas, and themes. The secondary authors coded a sample of transcripts. The organization of the total data set into themes was checked for transparency, (i.e. the sections of relevant text pertained to the Repeating Idea under which they were listed; the clustering of the Repeating Ideas into specific themes made sense) by the two secondary authors.

Our approach then takes a top down perspective, linking the data from any specific study to Theoretical Constructs found in the broader psychological literature. In this case, the theoretical constructs we used to create our theoretical narrative were the Reciprocity Hypothesis and Gender Role Strain/Conflict (O 'Neil, 2008, Pleck, 1994).

Participants

The demographic information is presented in Table 1 . Research participants were parents of triplets, and in one case quadruplets. For purposes of simplicity all multiples in the study will be referred to as triplets. Some families had additional children; others did not. Out of the 20 couples, six of the triplet births were spontaneous and the remaining fourteen were produced by assisted reproduction.

The participants were White and lived in Connecticut, New York or New Jersey. The average age of the triplets was three years. Twenty percent of the mothers worked full-time (37.5-40 hours per week), and 25% worked part-time. Four of the five parttime working mothers worked less than 11.5 hours per week. Therefore, 75% of the couples were either single or virtually single-earners in professional or paraprofessional careers. The annual family incomes ranged from $55,000 to $500,000, with a mean of $155,158 and a median of $110,000. The median household income based on a fourmember family is $64,520 in New York, $82,702 in Connecticut, and $78,560 in New Jersey (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). Thus most of the families were in the upperincome range of their communities. Most families had some ancillary help, which ranged from part-time to full-time. In some cases, the extra caregiver was an unpaid family member. The amount of help available to each family was mostly dependent upon finances.

Quantitative Data Collection

After the qualitative interview, each mother and father was given a quantitative survey instrument, The Daily Routine Scale: Mothers ' and Fathers' Attributions (Bonney, Kelly, & Levant, 1999). This questionnaire asked about parental involvement in 26 childcare activities and 17 household tasks. The measure was normed on a sample of couples (N = 120) that was equivalent in terms of class, race, and ethnicity, to those in our project, i.e. primarily White European, middle class, college educated, and in their early thirties. In the original sample, the fathers worked a mean number of 45.6 hours; mothers worked a mean of 33.2 hours.

Mothers and fathers completed the survey separately. For each item they answered the question, "Who usually does the following activity?" The responses were coded on a 5-point scale from 1 (mother always) to 5 (father always). In addition, mothers and fathers were asked to indicate how much time they and their spouses spent as primary caretaker.

Findings

Parenting Narratives

In this section we present the qualitative data in narrative form, constructing separate narratives for mothers and fathers. Our coding technique organized the data from the bottom up, identifying segments of Relevant Text that were clustered into Repeating Ideas which were then grouped into Themes. The final stage of data analysis linked the data to broader Theoretical Constructs found in behavioral ecology theory and gender role strain theory.

In order to help the reader understand this coding process, the narratives include the Theoretical Constructs in all capital letters; the Themes in italics; and the Repeating Ideas in quotation marks. We also included some examples of Relevant Text in quotation marks. As an additional aid to understanding our 3-step coding process, the Theoretical Constructs, Themes, and Repeating Ideas are listed in Table 2. Because of space considerations, Table 2 does not include examples of Relevant Text.

For each Theme, we have indicated the percentage of fathers or mothers who expressed Repeating Ideas that were clustered within that Theme. However, we offer a caveat about interpreting frequency data in qualitative research. The reporting of information offered voluntarily by some participants does not mean that a significant number of other participants did not experience similar thoughts or feelings. The other participants simply may not have spontaneously expressed those thoughts or feelings. In qualitative research, the absence of data does not constitute absence of evidence.

Mothers' narrative. The mothers' narrative begins with our first theoretical construct for mothers, THE ATTRACTION OF AFFILIATTVE MALES, derived from behavioral ecology. Forty per cent of the mothers reported that they sought out husbands who were capable of relating to children and ultimately chose a husband based on his nurturing skills. They had purposely chosen a husband that they thought would be "a fabulous father." Some of these mothers reported that they knew their husbands would be good fathers because they either entered the marriage with previous fathering experience ("He already had a child when we married."), or were observed to be "good with his nephews."

The birth of triplets created conditions where men had to be involved with childcare in order to promote the well-being of the child and the mother. We described this context in terms of our second theoretical construct for mothers, the RECIPROCITY HYPOTHESIS. Because of the physical stress of carrying triplets, about a third of the fathers became involved during the high-risk pregnancy when many of the women were restricted to bed rest (father involvement increased during pregnancy). These mothers reported how, "I was on bed rest practically the whole time." Because of this, the fathers took on early parenting responsibilities, such as preparing the home for the arrival of the triplets and/or caring for existing children.

Forty percent of the mothers acknowledged how much they valued their husbands' pre- and post-birth involvement. They reported that their husbands made their families their first priority (Fathers put their families first), using phrases like, "He is a perfect husband." A large majority of the women (70%) reported that, when their husbands were home, they were equal participants in childcare ("when he is home, he is caring for the children."). For example, one mother stated, "When he is home, he does whatever I do." This was particularly true in the evenings and on weekends. Some of the mothers who worked pointed out that, because of their work schedule, their husbands accepted a lot of the responsibility for childcare.

However, because most of the husbands worked full-time, there were many hours when mothers were involved and fathers were absent. This was particularly true in terms of the emotional connection with the children. Thus, in addition to these positive feelings, many women also expressed some negative feelings toward their husbands. We described these resentful feelings, using our third theoretical construct for mothers, RESENTING MALE PRIVILEGE. Slightly more than half (55%) of the mothers described feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and sometimes even resentful of their spouse. Some mothers simply said that they wanted their husbands to do more of everything (He needs to do more.). Others mentioned that they felt especially burdened by the executive, organizational responsibilities, "I'm tired of being the manager." Some expressed resentment that their husbands felt entitled to leisure time, despite the amount of work that triplets entailed, "He gets time for himself and I don't." Others felt unappreciated ("I don't think he knows what I go through all day.")

In summary, on the one hand, the mothers felt grateful that their husbands were highly involved. Some felt that the division of labor was equal when their husbands were present, and that their husbands were competent in childcare. On the other hand, many also felt that their husbands should give up more of their leisure time and share childcare more equitably.

Fathers' narrative. The fathers' narrative tells a story of highly involved fathers, consistent with our first theoretical construct for fathers, the RECIPROCITY HYPOTHESIS. Some adjusted to the new challenges they faced with facility, others with difficulty, and some had both kinds of experiences. Almost half of the fathers (40%) reported feeling pressured to become involved before the birth of their triplets, as they cared for their wives during the high-risk pregnancy (Many fathers felt triplet birth forced them to be more involved.). Many fathers stated that they would have participated less with post-birth childcare if they had not had triplets. One father stated "I wouldn't have done any feedings if we only had one." About half of the fathers, in contrast, felt committed to sharing childcare more equally. (Many fathers indicated their commitment to equal parenting.). One father said, "It's teamwork and that's it." These dads were committed to "doing as much as I can."

As a result of this high level of involvement, the fathers developed a high level of skills and confidence. Most were involved in all childcare activities. About one-third (30%) of the fathers felt that they were as competent in taking care of their children as their wives were (Some fathers felt they were as capable of nurturing as mothers.). For example, one father stated, "There is no distinction in what we can provide." Despite the complaint from some mothers that fathers were less involved in comforting their children emotionally, two fathers described their ability to comfort their children, "they come to me with their boo-boos."

The increased demands of triplets created tensions for the fathers, which we characterized by our second theoretical construct for fathers, GENDER ROLE STRAIN. One of the most robust findings was that 70% of the fathers felt torn between work and family (The work -family conflict was salient for triplet fathers.). Many fathers felt that they could not devote themselves to their jobs as much as they would have liked because they were needed at home, "What is going to happen with our money?" This was especially true during the infancy period. Consequently, these fathers felt they could not advance their careers, "I could have focused more on my career." Others did not "like to go to the office during the day because they [the babies] are awake." Some fathers were able to make special arrangements with their employers, such as working at home some of the time, going into the office later, or even cutting back on hours. Those fathers who had ancillary childcare were somewhat less affected. Yet even these fathers described feeling emotionally and physically depleted at work because of their high level of childcare at home. One father described the strain, "I couldn't afford to be that drowsy and the guys at work would say 'You look horrible.'" A number of fathers reported that they wished they could spend more time at home with their children, but could not, due to work demands, "I wish I was home more."

Some fathers (25%) expressed ambivalence about their role and responsibilities at home (Some fathers struggled with their increased involvement.). These men indicated that, prior to the arrival of the triplets they had imagined that they would do less childcare because they thought their wives would be able to handle it alone. One father said "I guess I thought she would take care of all that." These fathers reported "I have mixed feelings about my role." One father stated, "I get the most frustrated in the morning because I still feel like I should be doing what I used to" [i.e. only taking care of himself] . Other fathers struggled with the opposite feelings, expressing feelings like, "I don't do as much as I should," or "I should be out there holding them more and watching them."

Thirty percent of the fathers reported refusing to do housework that they regarded as typically "feminine" (Some fathers under-functioned and exercised male privilege .) . These fathers saw themselves as helpers or babysitters, rather than as full partners in childcare: "I help out- I don't clean the house, but I'll clean the dishes....;" or "I do all the babysitting." Nevertheless, by virtue of having triplets many of the fathers were still "forced" to participate at a high level. As a result, some reluctant fathers made statements such as, "I don't care what people say -even if you change your own kids' diapers, you never get used to it."

In summary, many fathers expressed a commitment to being highly involved. At the same time, many were also trying to hold onto some vestige of male privilege in terms of feeling entitled to refuse certain household tasks, seeing their role as a "babysitter," and protecting their leisure time. Overall, the majority of fathers described feeling stressed by their efforts to balance the demands of work and family responsibilities.

The Daily Routine Scale

The overall findings of the Daily Routine Scale: Mothers ' and Fathers 'Attributions reflected moderate agreement between mothers' and fathers' responses (overall Pearson rank correlation of .58 p < .01). Especially high correlations (e.g., .81 to .99) between mothers' and fathers' responses emerged on a number of items. These activities included, toilet training, picking up children from daycare, taking children to daycare, playing quietly, leaving work when the children are sick, taking children to and from activities, bathing the children and getting up in the night with the children.

In response to the question, "What percentage of time are you or your spouse the primary caretaker?" Fathers' mean response about self was 35.75% (SD = 18.73). Mothers' mean response that fathers were the primary caretaker was 34.10% (SD = 18.85). Thus, on average, mothers and fathers reported that the fathers were the primary caretakers approximately 35% of the time. This is consistent with data reported from other samples of families using the Daily Routine Scale. For example, Bonney et al. (1999) reported that fathers were the primary caretaker 36% of the total time devoted to childcare. Other samples in the Yeshiva Fatherhood Project described fathers as the primary caretaker on average, 31% (Jasper-Brody, 2001), and 36% of total caretaking time (Schechter,2001).

Bonney et al. (1999) had combined the following individual child-care items: feeding, bathing, changing diapers and toileting, putting the child to bed, getting up with the child at night, dressing, supervising morning routine, staying home when child is ill, taking child to doctor, disciplining child, setting limits, to form a single score that reflected the father's involvement in childcare. Because there was high agreement among the couples in their data set, the authors averaged together mothers' and fathers' replies to form a single Paternal Involvement in Child Care score.

We had hoped to compute a similar composite score so that we could compare the triplet data to the Bonney et al. (1999) data. However, we performed both an orthogonal and an oblique Principal Components factor analysis on both the Bonney et al. data and the triplet data. Neither data set yielded a factor that reflected the items in the Paternal Involvement in Child Care score, or any other readily interpretable factors. See Table 3 for means and correlations between and fathers' and mothers' responses. Because of the lack of interpretable factors, we were unable to use the qualitative and quantitative date to triangulate the concept of father involvement. Therefore, we did not pursue additional statistical analyses.

Discussion

It is difficult to compare the quantitative findings in the current study to norms reported in the literature (e.g., Pleck, 1997, 2004) for a number of reasons. Studies have used many different types of samples, e.g., U.S. and European families, single earner and dual earner families, and existing data sets that had been collected for other purposes. Moreover, the types of measures have varied widely, e.g., interviews, time di aries, and observational measures have all been used. In addition, father involvement has most often been reported as a percentage of mother's involvement, rather than as a percentage of total caregiving. Finally, many studies combine engagement and accessibility, and do not differentiate between parenting together vs. parenting alone.

The quantitative data do provide some tentative support to the idea that triplet families are an ecological context that generates relatively high father involvement. The current results in which mothers and fathers reported that fathers were the primary caretaker about one third of total caretaking time are comparable to the Bonney et al. (1999) and two other studies in the Yeshiva Fatherhood Project (Jasper-Brody, 2001; Schechter, 2001). However, the couples in the other two studies were all dual earner couples, whereas in the current study, only 20% of the mothers worked full-time, and another 20% worked a limited number of part-time hours (range = 4 to 11.5). Thus, in terms of how much the mothers worked outside the home, the current sample is more similar to single-earner families than to a sample of dual earner couples.

Pleck (1997) and Pleck and Masciadrelli (2004), in reviews of multiple studies on father involvement, found that fathers' proportion of the total parental time spent with children was consistently higher in dual earner families. Pleck (1997) speculated that ". . . single earner and dual earner families were different ecological contexts for father involvement, with father involvement more a function of his personality in the former, but more a function of structural factors in the latter" (p. 96). Our hypothesis is that the structural factors in triplet families, even when they are more similar to single earner than dual earner families, generate an ecological context of relatively higher paternal involvement.

The quantitative findings reported here demonstrate the challenge of conceptualizing, defining and measuring paternal involvement. The Daily Routine Scale data did not fit comfortably into either the dominant conceptualization of accessibility, engagement, and responsibility or other conceptually coherent factors. One possibility for this failure is that the scale did not accurately examine the concrete reality of triplet families' lives. For example, it was not designed to reflect the contribution of paid or unpaid additional caregivers, or the fact that much of the childcare in triplet families is done in the presence of multiple caregivers, rather than alone. Thus the concept of "primary caretaker" may not be the appropriate index of father involvement for these families.

It may be that parental involvement in the 21st Century involves a level of improvisation in many types of families that is not easily captured in a static questionnaire. Other researchers have reported similar confounding findings. For example, Chuang, Lamb, and Hwang (2004) conducted a longitudinal study of 144 Swedish parents over 15 years. These authors concluded, "measures within each phase [age range] did not consistently combine to yield coherent composite measures" (p. 145). What mothers and fathers do may continually vary as parents adapt to the specific contexts of their lives.

Because of the problems with the Daily Routine Scale, the quantitative data provided only limited support for the Reciprocity Hypothesis. The current findings do suggest that the presence of three infants increased the level of father involvement above that of a typical single- earner family. Studies examining the lives of more triplet families are necessary in order to explore further the idea that triplet families may represent an ecological context that encourages high paternal involvement.

The qualitative data, in contrast, allowed us to go beyond the limited quantitative findings by providing support for the idea that triplet families are an ecological context that promotes high father involvement. For example the quantitative data told us how frequently fathers had direct interactions with their children. The qualitative data deepened our understanding of the fathers' subjective experiences of this high level of involvement. For example, some of the dads expressed ambivalence about their involvement in that they felt "forced" to be more involved than they might have chosen to be. Others reported that they felt as competent to nurture their children as their wives did. Many wanted to spend more time at home with their children, despite worrying about their careers.

Similarly, the qualitative data provided a context for the dads' higher level of involvement. Many of the dads reported that they were more involved than they had been with a previous singleton child. The fathers described their wives' physical vulnerability during pregnancy as the reason for their early involvement. These qualitative details provided the strongest evidence that it was the demand for additional childcare, rather than individual personality characteristics or a change in gender role norms, which stimulated the high level of paternal involvement. As predicted by the Reciprocity Hypothesis, these findings suggest that it was the ecological context of the presence of three infants/young children that generated high paternal involvement.

Moreover, because of the bottom up nature of qualitative inquiry, participants often provide information about which researchers had not thought to ask. In the current study, early father involvement during pregnancy was an issue that had not been included in either the quantitative nor qualitative questionnaires. This finding of high paternal involvement during pregnancy contrasts with other samples of White middle-class families with singleton pregnancies in the Yeshiva Fatherhood Project in which the majority of fathers did not begin their involvement until after the baby was born (Bailey, 2002; Jasper-Brody, 2001; Schechter, 2001). However, this early involvement finding is similar to a study of low income unmarried fathers of color living separately from the mothers (Cabrera, Fagan, & Farrie, 2008) in which prenatal involvement predicted father engagement at years one and three. The consistent theme in both studies may be that a stressful context, physiological stress for triplet mothers and economic and social stress for low-income mothers of color, generates higher prenatal involvement of fathers than do less stressful contexts. These complementary findings suggest that the "survival enhancement" component of the Reciprocity Hypothesis may be generating high paternal involvement in high stress contexts.

Another finding that distinguishes the fathers in the current study was that most fathers participated in all child caretaking tasks. In previous qualitative interviews with equivalent samples (in terms of race, ethnicity, class, and geographical region, i.e., Bailey, 2002; Jasper-Brody, 2001 ; Schechter, 2001) fathers routinely felt entitled to refuse certain tasks. In some studies, fathers said, "I don't do diapers." In other families, mothers complained that their husbands simply refused to get up and get the kids dressed in the morning, or do homework with them at night. Similarly, many of the dual-earner fathers in previous studies avoided tasks they considered "motherly." For example, in Bailey's (2002) study, 30% of the 20 dual-earner fathers described feeling inadequate in terms of comforting their children.

In the triplet families, few of the dads felt entitled to refuse any childcare task. It may be that the demands of caring for three children were so compelling, that there simply was little possibility of refusal. However, we also speculate that the demand for more paternal involvement generated more skills in the fathers, which in turn led to more confidence and a greater desire or willingness to participate.

This cycle of demand for involvement, leading to skill building, generating selfconfidence, that in turn led to more involvement, helped to bring about a change in some of the men's beliefs about parenting roles. They began to see themselves as equally capable of nurturing as their wives. Necessity was the "mother" of invention for these fathers. The majority of the fathers expressed the idea that they were as competent as mothers. We have called this phenomenon of both parents participating in all aspects of childcare, "degendered parenting." We first encountered this in samples of gay fathers where the absence of mothers precluded a gendered division of labor (Schacher, Auerbach, & Silverstein, 2006).

Despite the relatively high level and comprehensive nature of their involvement, some of the triplet fathers, like fathers in other family contexts that we have studied, did express ambivalence and resentment about the nature of their more involved parental role. Fathers in general are experiencing strain in contemporary U. S. society. On the one hand, being a good provider is still a cornerstone of being a good father. Being a good provider often requires long hours, hard work, and travel. These demands mean that fathers must spend a significant amount of time away from home, and a significant amount of psychic energy focused on their public role.

At the same time, the contemporary fathering role requires a significant amount of caregiving and nurturing of young children. These aspects of the fathering role demand that fathers spend time at home with their families. These contrasting demands mean that most men experience gender role strain as they strive to fulfill two contradictory role requirements. The triplet fathers in our study were experiencing a particularly high level of gender role strain in that most were the sole or primary breadwinners for multiple children, and at the same time were experiencing pressure to increase their level of caregiving.

As gender role strain increases, some men respond to this inner turmoil by refusing certain childcare and household tasks, and insisting on protecting their leisure time even in the face of demands from young children. This behavior on the part of fathers is typically characterized as male privilege because it is extremely rare for mothers to refuse aspects of care for infants and young children. For example, we are not aware of any study reporting that a mother refused to do diapers, or characterizing her behavior as "babysitting." However, many studies have described fathers refusing these tasks. In the current study, fathers may have grumbled about changing diapers ("Even if you change your kids diapers, you never get used to it."), but they did so.

Evidence that the fathers in the current study were experiencing gender role strain can be also seen in their contradictory attitudes toward their work. We find expressions of concern that they were not spending enough time focused on their careers, and also worry that they were not doing enough for their children. Although some of the fathers wanted to share parenting equally, many others felt "forced" into a higher level of involvement than they would have chosen. These data suggest that issues of gender role strain and male entitlement were present in these triplet families as they were in all of the other heterosexual, married couples that we have studied.

Many triplet fathers talked about their work/family conflict in a way that was more similar to the conflict that working mothers have described (Bailey, 2002; Deinhart, 1998; Deutsch, 1999; Jasper-Brody, 2001). In general, it is mothers, rather than fathers, who express guilt about spending too much time at work. However, like working mothers in dual-earner families, some triplet fathers changed or decreased their work hours in order to be home more. This is another example of how the ecological context of triplets was different from that of other married, heterosexual families and worked to degender parenting.

In summary, triplet fathers in this study had a higher level of involvement than is typical of fathers in single earner families. The high level of father involvement was more characteristic of fathers in dual-earner families. In addition, about a third of the fathers became involved earlier, most were involved in virtually all aspects of childcare, and many experienced themselves as equally competent as their wives. Finally, many of the fathers expressed work-family conflict that was more typical of working mothers, and some of the fathers took steps to decrease their involvement in paid work.

We speculate that dual-earner and triplet fathers each confirm a separate component of the Reciprocity Hypothesis. In general, dual-earner fathers contribute to childcare in exchange for the financial resources their wives provide (exchange component). Triplet fathers, in contrast, demonstrated high involvement because their contribution was vital to the optimal development of the infants (survival component).

We want to call attention also to the reports of almost half (40%) of the mothers that they chose their husbands because they thought the men would be good fathers, rather than good providers. This assertion is in stark contrast to the claims of evolutionary psychologists that women choose mates based on their potential to provide adequate material resources and protection (Archer, 1996; Buss, 1995). Smuts (1985) has pointed out that, in certain ecological contexts, baboon females often choose to mate with affiliative rather than aggressive males. The triplet mothers' preferences for affiliative men may reflect pre-selection for high father involvement in this sample of women. This finding provides another example of the similarity between human primate and nonhuman primate behavior, and also illustrates that complex human behaviors such as mate selection and parenting are extraordinarily sensitive to environmental context (see Silverstein, 1998 for a more extensive discussion of female mate selection strategies.).

Conclusion

Our focus on ecological theory is in keeping with other developmental theorists. Pleck (2007) proposed integrating ecological models into a theoretical framework for understanding how father involvement benefits children. He proposed using Bronfenbrenner's model (1994) or Belsky's (1984) process model of parenting because both perspectives distinguish between different levels of influence on child development. These levels range from inner or proximal systems, e.g., the microsystem that represents face-to-face relationships; to mesosystems that reflect linkages between microsystems; through exosystems such as parents' jobs and social support networks. In the current study, we offer the Reciprocity Hypothesis as one example of an exosystem that can influence father-child interactions.

The Reciprocity Hypothesis supports the social constructivist perspective. It states that father involvement will be high in an ecological context in which mothers and fathers have mutual resources to exchange; and/or infant survival will benefit from male involvement. The current findings suggest that the Reciprocity Hypothesis can contribute to explaining varying levels of human paternal involvement. This finding lends support to the social constructivist hypothesis that parenting roles are not essentially determined by biological differences between men and women, but rather are flexible and vary depending on ecological context.

We believe that these data have important policy implications. First, they suggest that governmental policy should not privilege any particular family structure. Our point of view is that active, positive involvement by responsible fathers, heterosexual or homosexual and married or unmarried, is beneficial for children, for mothers, and for fathers.

Moreover, we believe that the findings of the current study have implications beyond the White middle class sample on which they are based. It is essential to underline the power of context because of the importance of unpacking the complex system of institutionalized racism that constructs the lives of poor families of color in contemporary U. S. society. White neoconservatives (e.g., Popenoe, 1996), pop culture figures (e.g., Bill Cosby), and some progressive politicians (most notably former Senator, now President Barack Obama) have stressed the need for African American fathers to be more responsible. Yet these same social commentators have neglected to recognize the social context within which African American fathering has been constructed.

We endorse a both/and perspective, i.e. both personal responsibility and public policy are important components in the construction of responsible fatherhood. We believe that the importance of the social context in which African American fathering has been enacted has too often been ignored. The legacy of slavery, in which African American women were routinely raped and families destroyed, and the under-investment in urban communities leading to the under-education and over-incarceration of African American men have made it difficult for them to fulfill the "good provider" role. An exclusive emphasis on personal responsibility provides a rationale for continuing the policy of discrimination and under-investment of public funds in communities of color. Acknowledging the centrality of context, in contrast, has the potential to generate policies that provide social and cultural capital to these communities. This article is part of a continuing effort to move social science research away from its traditional focus on intraindividual and intrafamilial variables to a wider focus that includes the impact of the larger ecological context (see Auerbach & Silverstein, 1999; Silverstein, 1993, 1998) for earlier discussions of this perspective).

Limitations of the Study

There are a number of limitations intrinsic to the design of this study. Self-report data are always subjective and sensitive to social desirability factors. The married couples in the current study participated in the qualitative interview together, allowing the researchers to observe how interactions might occur in the everyday lives of triplet parents. However, the joint nature of the interviews might have affected the mothers and fathers in that they may have been reluctant to respond openly with their spouse present.

Finally, the results of this study should not be generalized to all families of higher order multiples (triplets or more). The large percentage of families in the study who had assisted pregnancies indicates high motivation to become parents, and may reflect a corresponding desire for high levels of paternal involvement on the part of both mothers and fathers. All of the mothers and fathers were members of a triplet support group and volunteered to share personal accounts of their experiences. Thus, the participants represented a self-selected group and therefore may differ from other triplet or multiple families who would not be willing to share their experiences.

A final obstacle to generalization has to do with the small sample size (N = 20 couples). Both the quantitative and qualitative paradigms acknowledge that more research is needed before the results of any single study can be considered accurate. We plan to replicate this study with subsequent samples of triplet families, and other families that require unusually large amounts of parental care, e.g., a child with a chronic illness.

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Author affiliation:

Jennifer Brout(a), Dara Magrone Lepofsky(b), Louise Bordeaux Silverstein(c), and Carl F. Auerbach(c)

a Sensation and Emotion Network, Mamaroneck, NY.

b Mamaroneck Union Free School District, Mamaroneck, NY.

c Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University.

The coded data from the current study were originally organized by the first two authors and submitted as Psy.D. research projects in partial fulfillment of their doctoral degrees. For the purposes of the current article, the third author reanalyzed the qualitative data pertaining to shared parenting. The complete data sets are available from the first two authors. We want to thank Dr. Vance Zemon for his generous help in analyzing the quantitative data.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Louise Bordeaux Silverstein at LouiseSilverstein@gmail.com

Dr. JenB

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