How New Mothers’ and Fathers’ Allocation of Tasks Relate to Their Coparenting Relationship

Abstract

New parents must decide how to divide household, childcare, and financial responsibilities. These divisions can be difficult, especially when couples’ wants do not align. Interviewing ethnically and racially diverse new parents ( n = 198 couples), we explore how parents’ desired allocation of childcare, household, and financial tasks differ from perceived distribution and whether discrepancies relate to coparenting relationship quality. All parents perceived mothers doing more housework and childcare and fathers contributing more financially. When women reported doing more housework and childcare than wanted, coparenting relationship quality was lower. For women, discrepancies between what they and their partners report was associated with lower coparenting relationship quality. Findings reflect traditional gender roles among new parents and women’s desire for their partners to take on more household and childcare work. Such findings can help inform parenting interventions for new parents, encouraging communication between partners about the division of tasks to support their coparenting relationship.