Paternal involvement and care during the social health crisis

ABSTRACT

Although men are increasingly willing to participate in the care of their children, women are still mainly responsible for them, despite having been in the labor market for decades. The experience of quarantine, a preventive health measure against the contagion of COVID-19, left families confined to their homes and made the issue of care visible globally. The following study sought to identify the impact of the crisis produced by the social outbreak in Chile and the COVID-19 pandemic on the distribution of unpaid work and parental involvement. Through a cross-sectional, qualitative exploratory design, five upper-middle-class heterosexual couples were interviewed during the first year of their first baby's life. The results show that, although couples continue to view the woman as the main caregiver and the man as the provider, confinement has enabled greater parental involvement, which has been positively signified by both members of the couple. More research is still needed on the unequal and sexist distribution of care and the evolution of paternal involvement after a pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) Si bien los hombres estan cada vez mas dispuestos a participar en los cuidados de sus hijas e hijos, mayoritariamente son las mujeres las principales responsables de estos. La vivencia de la cuarentena, medida sanitaria de prevencion del COVID-19, dejo a las familias confinadas en sus hogares y visibilizo el tema de los cuidados globalmente. El siguiente estudio busco identificar el impacto de la crisis producida por el estallido social en Chile y la pandemia del COVID-19 en la distribucion del trabajo no remunerado y el involucramiento paterno. Desde un diseno exploratorio de caracter cualitativo y corte transversal se entrevisto a cinco parejas heterosexuales durante el primer ano de vida de su bebe. Los resultados evidencian que, si bien las parejas visualizan a la mujer como la cuidadora principal y al hombre como proveedor, el confinamiento ha posibilitado un mayor involucramiento paterno, lo que ha sido significado de forma positiva por ambos miembros de la pareja. Aun se hace necesario investigar mas acerca de la distribucion inequitativa y sexista de los cuidados y la evolucion del involucramiento paterno. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)