Is Fatherhood a Full-Time Job? Mixed Methods Insights into Measuring Stay-at-Home Fatherhood

Abstract

Little is known about men who serve as primary caregivers for American families due to a lack of detailed questions on fatherhood and small numbers found in large-scale, nationally representative surveys. This paper moves beyond this limitation using a combination of in-depth interviews with 40 fathers and microdata from the 2005-2007 American Community Survey to critically assess whether the US Census Bureau accurately counts the number of male primary caregivers. Findings suggest that it likely underestimates the number who care full-time, by as many as 1.4 million, by not counting fathers who work part-time, report other reasons for being home and/or have been home less than one year. These results have important implications for how scholars more precisely measure emergent, transitioning forms of fatherhood.