Paternal Involvement and Perception Toward Fathers' Roles:: A Comparison Between Japan and the United States
Abstract
Using a representative sample of Japanese and American fathers and their adolescent children, this cross-national study examines the extent of paternal involvement and fathers' and children's perception toward their relationships. Consistent with the media image of involved fathers, we found that American fathers spend more time with their children than their Japanese counterparts. However, although American children's perception toward their fathers is associated with such interaction, Japanese children's views toward their fathers are not strongly related to the quantity of father-child interaction. Concerning fathers' evaluations, both American and Japanese men consider themselves understanding and feel closer to their children when they interact more frequently with their offspring. We conclude that a cross-national comparison of paternal involvement and perception toward fathers' roles must take into account different types of activities rather than aggregate time of father-child interaction. Several explanations for the observed findings are discussed and suggestions for future cross-national research on fatherhood are offered.
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1. In a separate analysis, the interaction terms among countries, paternal involvement, and father's (understanding and emotional closeness) or child's (understanding and reliable) perception were included to examine whether the effects of paternal involvement on children's and fathers' perceptions vary between Japan and the United States. The results in Tables 2 and 3 are obtained from analyzing logit models separately for each country. These tables also include the difference in effects from the above pooled analyses.
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