Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan and Claire Kamp Dush
Human Sciences
Why do Mothers Still Do More Childcare in Dual-Career Families?
Parenthood is a profound, life-altering experience. Although most people experience great joy and satisfaction from parenting, parenthood can also be one of the most challenging and trying experiences for individuals and couples. This is especially true for first-time parents and for dual-earner couples in which both parents work full-time outside the home. Schoppe-Sullivan and Kamp Dush’s research focuses on why some couples successfully navigate the transition to parenthood whereas others do not, and what that means for their relationships with their partners, their relationships with their children, and their children’s development. In recent and forthcoming studies, Schoppe-Sullivan and Kamp Dush have shown that even in contemporary dual-earner couples, mothers still take primary responsibility for parenting. In one forthcoming study, they found that expectant mothers showed greater “intuitive parenting” behavior than expectant fathers, and that more intuitive fathers only spent more time with their infants when mothers were less intuitive. In other recent and forthcoming work, Schoppe-Sullivan and Kamp Dush have shown that new mothers still shoulder the majority of childcare work and that this is not balanced by a decrease in paid work. Schoppe-Sullivan and Kamp Dush can discuss these studies and other work drawn from their New Parents Project, a study of nearly 200 dual-earner couples that followed them from pregnancy until their children were toddlers.
Schoppe-Sullivan is an associate professor of human sciences.
Faculty Webpage
Kamp Dush is an assistant professor of human sciences.
Faculty Webpage
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