The extent of the fathers’ involvement in childcare (0 - 6 years old) in selected barangays in Roxas City

Abstract

The study investigated the extent of the fathers’ involvement in childcare in three selected barangays in Roxas City. More specifically, the study aimed to determine the personal characteristics of the respondents in terms of age, educational attainment, occupation, family monthly income, number of hours of work done outside the house and the household characteristics in terms of wife’s employment status, number of living children, number of living children 0-6 years of age, and the number of household members. Once identified, it was attempted to determine how such personal and household characteristics of the respondents affected their attitude and thereby the extent of their involvement in childcare.

This is a descriptive-relational study that employed the interview schedule. Frequencies and means were used to analyze and interpret descriptive data while chi square and gamma tests were used to analyze statistical data. Relationships between the variables were tested at 0.05 level of significance. All results were computer generated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software.

Major Findings of the Study

The majority of the respondents are under 30 years of age, had reached college level of education and are mostly non-office workers, earns a family monthly income below Php5,000.00 and with unemployed wives They have at most three children, one of: whom is under 6 years of age and with less household members.

In terms of attitude towards childcare, three-fourths of the respondents have good attitude and their extent of involvement in childcare is to a fair extent. The respondents’ personal and household characteristics, however, does not significantly affect the attitude except for the number of household members, which registers a poor attitude when the household is large.

The personal and household characteristics of the respondents which are significantly related to the extent of involvement are age, occupation, number of living children and number of household members.

There is a highly significant relationship between the respondents’ attitude towards childcare and the extent of involvement in child care.

Conclusions: 1. Most fathers of children aged 6 years and below are young and highly educated, but are non-office workers with low monthly income. Most of them work less than 8 hours a day and have unemployed wives.

2. Most of the respondents have a medium-sized household, have less than three children, with only one child under six years.

3. The number of household members is significantly related to the attitude towards childcare. This means that the more the household members, the poorer is the attitude. Other variables are not significantly related to the attitude towards childcare. 4. Fathers who are young, not working, have a six-year old child and with less household members have good extent of involvement in childcare.

5. Although majority of the fathers have good attitude towards childcare yet, their involvement towards childcare is only to a fair extent.

Recommendations

In the light of all the research findings and conclusions made from this study, the researcher recommends the following:

1. To successfully promote male involvement in the family, concerned leaders, government and non-government organizations must begin advocating for gender equality. They must work to educate boys and men to prepare them for a future, broader fathering role.

2. Men, as well as women, should be taught to see the care of children as an honorable and necessary task. This should be included in the pre-nuptial counseling seminar. Aside from paternity leave benefits, it is the role of policymakers to provide more policies and programs which will encourage men to more participation and involvement in the care of the child.

3. Employment, economic and childcare policies should support the parents’ initiative to earn a decent if not ample livelihood as well as their equally essential commitments to children and partners.

4. Support the fathers through family and parenting services. Family-related services, including antenatal and postnatal services which are community- based services for families with children and early childhood education, have an important role to play in fostering the fathers’ involvement in their families. Include in the health information campaign the roles of fathers with pictures of fathers performing childcare activities.

5. A more thorough research along this field of study should be conducted to further verify the findings. The researcher suggests that an in-depth study be conducted on a larger and more representative population.