SUMMARY OF UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STAY-AT-HOME DAD RESEARCH

April 2, 2007

Dear SAHF research participants,

Thanks again for participating in the research on SAHFs. We will be presenting the results of this project at the American Psychological Association Conference in San Francisco (August, 2007) and preparing the data for publication in an academic men’s journal (likely Psychology of Men and Masculinity).

Below is my best effort to summarize the results. If you recall, what we were most interested in evaluating what factors predicted psychological well-being and relationship satisfaction among a large national sample of stay-at-home fathers. In addition, we were interested in finding out how this sample of men reported doing on various psychological and parenting measures. Below are what I consider to be the most central facts and findings. More data will be provided in the manuscript.

The sample

Complete data was submitted by 213 men who considered themselves SAHFs.  The average age was 37 and the sample was primarily Caucasian (93%).  Ninety-seven percent of the sample had been employed prior to becoming a SAHF.  Sixty-seven percent of the sample reported being currently not-employed and endorsed being a full time childcare provider.  Another 30% of the sample worked part-time in or outside of the home.  Ninety-eight percent of the sample was married. Seventy-two percent of the sample had a bachelors degree or higher.  Average number of children was 1.8 (2 was the most common number of children).

Reports of Psychological Well-Being, Life Satisfaction, and Relationship Satisfaction

Overall, the sample reported average to moderately high levels of life satisfaction and psychological well-being . The average for the sample for well-being and life satisfaction was 29 and 26, respectively, out of a possible 35 points.  Relationship satisfaction levels were slightly higher with a mean of 30 out of a possible 36. This data is comparable, if not slightly higher, to data reported in other studies on non SAHFs. 

Predictors or “correlates” of Well-Being, Life-Satisfaction and Relationship Satisfaction

Importantly, there was a considerable range in the scores on the measures used in the study. In other words, some of the men were doing great – reporting high levels of life satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and low levels of distress.  Others were lower on these variables and not doing as well. So we were interested in looking at what variables were related to or predicted distress and life and relationship satisfaction.  We found several significant variables described below. 

1) Social Support – Men who reported high levels of social support reported higher levels of relationship satisfaction, psychological well-being ( i.e., less distress), and overall were more satisfied in their lives. Social support seemed important in several different contexts – with their partner, friends, and family. Conversely, those who had low social support in these areas seemed to be struggling more in their relationships and in life.

2) Parenting Confidence and Skills – Men who reported higher levels of confidence or self-efficacy (essentially another word for confidence) with many of the basic tasks of parenting seemed happier in their lives.  Interestingly, there were a few different types of parenting self-efficacy  that told us further information. These included how well men encouraged their children to be autonomous in life (and in their play) as well as how confident men felt about being nurturing toward their children. Men who rated themselves higher on these dimensions (having more confidence in being nurturing toward their kids and encouraging them to be independent at times) reported being happier in their lives and experienced less distress.

3) Masculinity Conformity –  An additional focus of this study was how stay-at-home fathers rated themselves on a commonly used measure of conformity (or adherence) to traditional male role norms or values.  These are essentially statements that men either agree or disagree with in terms of what it means for them to be a man. For example, very traditional norms of masculinity would include such ideas that men should be powerful, successful, have dominance over women, solve problems by themselves, avoid emotional expression, etc. 

Overall the sample had significantly lower conformity to traditional masculine norms and values than similarly aged men in the community (as contrasted to other data to be published). In general, this is a good thing as there is a significant literature base that suggests that strict adherence to these traditional values is related to a number of psychological and physical problems including substance abuse, depression, anxiety, problems in relationships, etc.

However, as with the other variables in the study there as a considerable range in responses.  What we found is that SAHFs who had lower scores on this masculinity measure (which represented less traditional and more flexible male gender roles) reported being more satisfied in life and their relationships and had lower levels of psychological distress. Conversely, men who had higher conformity to these masculine norms had lower reported levels of life and relationship satisfaction and higher distress.  In the most simple way of explaining this - SAHF who considered themselves more (traditionally) masculine seemed to be struggling some in their roles, reporting more distress and not being as happy in life and in their relationship.   Masculinity conformity was also related to social support, with men who had endorsed more traditional ideals of masculinity reported having lower levels of social support in their lives.

Final Comments

Of course, these results are very interesting to us and will undoubtedly be a nice contribution to the (small) literature on stay-at-home dads and more broadly men and masculinity.  Some of the results may be surprising to you while others may see it all as “common sense.”  You may also think of your own pattern as fitting in with these results or not at all.    In the paper, we will be commenting much more on the implications, limitations, and the need for more research on this topic.

My hope is that maybe you all can take a small piece of this study and think about how it fits (or doesn’t fit) into your unique situation.

But for now, I did want to share these results with everyone who participated. Again, I  thank everyone for participating and contributing to this area of research.