Parents sharing caregiving for kids have conflicts--study

Parents have less arguments or conflicts if the father spends more time playing with children rather than feeding or bathing kids.

However, this might not hold true for every family, according to Prof. Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan at Ohio State University.

"I don't think this means that for every family, a father being involved in caregiving is a bad thing," she said.

"But it is not the recipe for all couples. You can certainly have a solid co-parenting relationship without sharing caregiving responsibilities equally."

112 couples analyzed
The study looked at 112 couples who had a 4 year-old child.

Questionnaires were used to evaluate the amount of time parents spent in playing with the child as well as in caregiving activities.

Then the parents were asked to assist their child in drawing a family picture and building a house out of a toy building set.

The tasks were intentionally designed to a bit difficult for the kids so that their parents assist them in completing them.

Indicators of supportive co-parenting like words of encouragement to child, and co-operation between the partners was constantly examined by the researchers.

Further, incidents of conflicts among the partners too were taken into account.

The families were further put to the similar tasks a year later.

Study results
it was found that the couples showed more supportive co-parenting in cases where the fathers played more with the kids, the study claims.

On the other hand, in cases where fathers spent more time caregiving, conflicts occurred more often.

The results remained constant in case of dual and single-income families or when factors like father's education and work hours, family income, family size and the length of the couple's relationship were taken into account.

"There might be some ambivalence on the part of mothers in allowing fathers to participate in day-to-day child care," Prof. Schoppe-Sullivan said.

"But fathers might be ambivalent too, and may not be happy about shouldering more of the caregiving. That may contribute to less supportive co-parenting."

The study appears in the journal 'Developmental Psychology.'