ABSTRACT
In the present study, we investigated whether fathers' and mothers' parenting behavior is differentially related to parental factors (such as age and employment), child factors (age and gender) as well as social support. Parents reported on their use of a broad range of parenting behaviors, including affection, responsivity, explaining, autonomy, support, rewarding, and punishing. We used survey data from the Netherlands for 1197 mothers and 903 fathers of children aged 2 to 17. Seemingly unrelated regression analyses were conducted to combine the regression results on the separate subsamples (fathers and mothers) and to test for differences in the coefficients between those subsamples. Our expectation that the parenting behavior of fathers is more dependent on parents' characteristics, children's characteristics, and social support than that of mothers was only partly confirmed by the results of our analysis. In general, our results suggest that fathers' parenting behaviors seem to be associated with parental and child characteristics and contextual factors in ways that are similar to how these factors are associated with mothers' parenting behaviors. Results are discussed in relation to the roles and expectations associated with motherhood and fatherhood.
ABSTRACT
Our aim was to improve the understanding of the relationships between performance-based contracting, management supportiveness and professionalism in home care. Using path analysis, this article explores the relationships between home-care workers' perceptions of management support, implementation of performance-based contracting (i.e. use of strict time registration rules and cost-efficiency measures) and autonomy and intrinsic job satisfaction. We hypothesised that: use of strict time registration rules and cost-efficiency measures relates to lower levels of autonomy and intrinsic job satisfaction (H1); there is an indirect relationship between use of strict time registration rules and use of cost-efficiency measures and intrinsic job satisfaction via autonomy (H2); higher levels of management support relate to the use of looser time registration rules and less use of cost-efficiency measures (H3); and higher levels of management support relate to higher levels of autonomy and intrinsic job satisfaction (H4). We used data from a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2010 of a sample of Dutch home-care workers (N = 156, response rate = 34%). Overall, our study suggests that the consequences of performance-based contracting for professionalism are ambiguous. More specifically, using strict time registration rules is related to lower levels of autonomy, whereas using cost-efficiency measures does not seem to affect autonomy (H1). Performance-based contracting has no consequences for the level of fulfilment home-care workers find in their job, as neither of the two contracting dimensions measured was directly or indirectly related to intrinsic job satisfaction (H1, H2). The role of managers must be taken into account when studying performance-based contracting, because perceived higher management support is related to managers' less frequent use of both strict time registration rules and of cost-efficiency measures (H3). The insight we gained into the importance of supportive managers for both autonomy and job satisfaction (H4) can help home-care organisations improve the attractiveness of home-care work.