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Title: Stay-at-Home Fathers: Definition and Characteristics Based on 42 Years of CPS Data
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2010
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Abstract: Different conceptualizations of what constitutes a stay-at-home father household lead to differentcharacteristics and different proportion of stay-at-home father households among all marriedcouples households. In this paper we show the results of different definitions of stay-at-homefather households. A strict estimate of such households defines a stay-at-home father householdas a household with children in which the wife provides all the income and the husband providesno income and performs a majority of the household chores and child care. Less strict definitionsrange by the proportion of household income the wife earns (as long as it is above 50%) and byreason the husband is not working. Analysis is based on CPS data from 1968 to 2009 andexamines the differences in the proportion and characteristics of stay-at-home father householdswhen using different definitions and over time. We find that stay-at-home father households havefewer children, older children, and fewer children under age 5. We also find that mothers in stayat-home father households are much more educated than their husbands. We also find thatmothers in stay-at-home father households experienced the sharpest increase in educationcompared to all males and females in all types of households. Both mothers and fathers in stayat-home father households are older than mothers and fathers in stay-at-home mother and dualearnerhouseholds. Finally, there is a very substantial increase in the amount of fathers whochoose to stay at home to take care of home and family rather than being forced to stay-at-homebecause of inability to find work, illness, or disability.
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Authors: McCulloch, Jan B.; Kramer, Karen Z.
Conference Name: Population Association of America
Publisher Location: Dallas, TX
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Family and Marriage, Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other
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