Dissemination

British Sociological Association Conference – University of Manchester

14-15 April 2023

Abstract: Fathers spend more time on childcare than previous generations but the implications on children are unclear. Research conducted with mothers or ‘parents’ more broadly finds that engagement in educational types of activities (such as reading and playing) has an association with better primary school grades and cognitive skills. However, we know less about the effects from fathers’ engagement, particularly when they live in low-income households where opportunities to engage with children are more constrained.

This paper explores the relationship between paternal childcare engagement, poverty and children’s attainment at primary school. We theorise educational attainment in terms of a capabilities framework (Sen 1992) where household circumstances – such as parental engagement, household income, resources and other socio-demographics – interact and shape children’s opportunities (capabilities) to achieve in different ways.

We use structural equation models on data from three sweeps of the Millennium Cohort Study (2000-06) that have been linked to educational data provided by the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile at age five – a standard assessment for all primary school children in England. Results show that fathers’ childcare engagement does have a positive effect on children’s educational attainment, over and above the mothers’ engagement, and even reduces the negative effects of being in poverty. This has important policy implications because the findings suggest that fathers’ engagement in a child’s learning could offer different ways of tackling persistent socio-economic attainment gaps in early education.

Presentation slides: BSA_2023_HNorman_Fathers, mothers Inv in low income households_clean

WiSE Centre for Economic Justice – ‘Conversations on Care’ lecture series, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

8th December 2022

Fathers are more involved in childcare and domestic work compared to previous generations but they still do much less than mothers. In this talk, Helen reflects on the gendered division of care, the barriers to father’s childcare involvement and the implications that this has on their children’s development.

Helen with Dr Nina Teasdale, Postdoctoral Fellow at WiSE

BBC Radio 4 – 14th Nov, 2022

In spite of progress on men’s involvement in childcare, the statistics show that women are still taking on a much bigger share of the work than men. In this programme, Helen provides commentary to Professor Tina Miller on the impact of fathers being involved with their children in the first year of life.

BBC Sounds clip starts at 09:22.

Fatherhood Institute (FI) online event, 7 October 2022

There were three presentations at this event:

Helen Norman – Does father involvement affect children’s educatonal attainment (PIECE project findings).

Adrienne Burgess – Head of Research at the FI – ‘What has lockdown done for father/child relationships?’

Jeszemma Howl – Head of Training at the FI – Can ten minutes matter? How a reading at home programme (Fathers Reading Every Day) impacts on father-child relationships.

You can watch a recording of the FI event and listen to all the presentations here

You can also read more about the FI work with Family Hubs: http://www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/2022/familyhubs/ 

Leeds University Business School (LUBS) Research Conference – 13th June 2022, University of Leeds

Helen introduced the PIECE project and latest findings to colleagues at the LUBS Annual Research Conference in Leeds.

Presentation slides available here