Study: Shared caregiving duties may lead to problems between parents

By Staff Writer

Parental conflict may lead to various emotional and behavioral problems among children. Furthermore, a tense environment at home may lead some problem teens to engage in unhealthy activities, such as substance abuse or bullying.

Adolescents who have feuding parents may benefit from therapeutic boarding schools, which aim to provide help for troubled teens.

A new study in the journal Developmental Psychology explains that parents who equally share caregiving responsibilities are more likely to feud with each other. Researchers from Ohio State University studied 112 Midwestern couples who had 4-year-old children. Mothers and fathers each filled out a survey about their parental habits, and then researchers observed the parents assisting their children in two tasks: drawing a picture of the family and building a house out of a toy building set.

The team concluded that couples had a stronger, more supportive co-parenting relationship when the father spent more time playing with their child as opposed to splitting caregiving duties with his wife. When the father was more active in caregiving - such as preparing meals or giving baths - the couples were less likely to exhibit harmony and more likely to undermine each other during the family tasks.

The study's authors surmised that, even though male involvement in child rearing has increased over the last few decades, some fathers may be unhappy and hold a grudge because they have more responsibilities.