Parental role agreements between Korean mothers and fathers

초록

Parental roles have been studied by many researchers on past decades, however, most parental roles and developmental outcomew of children and relatively little attention have been given on identifying the fundamental bases of parental roles. The current study wasdesigned to explore the meaning of being a father and a mother in contemporary Korean society by examining maternal and paternal roles perceived by mothers and fathers with children at different developmental stages. 385 pairs of mothers and fathers woth children aged from one to thirteen years were recruited. Mothers and Fathers were asked to complete a modified version of Generative Fathering Scales developed by Lee et al.(1999), to measure paternal and maternal roles perceived by fathers and mothers in two areas: (1) parenting responsibilities, and (2) participation in childrearing practices. In addtion, spousal accordance, and reflection of own parents were asked of mothers and fathers. Generally, mothers and fathers perceived maternal and paterna roles on different lights. Mothers were more focused on theparticipation in childrearing practices than fathers and fathers were more concerned about parenting responsibilities than mothers. The specific differences between father's roles perceived by father and mother each and mother's roles perceived by father and mother each were analyzed according to children's age, demographic vatiables of families, spousal accordance, and reflection of own parents. As the child was older the agreement between parents were greater and as the child was younger father's participation in childrearing practices were more emphasize.