Research Shows COVID-19 Lockdowns Had No Lasting Impact on Fatherhood

COVID-19 lockdowns did not create a lasting, large-scale shift in how fathers participate in child-rearing, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame. While the pandemic initially created conditions for dual-parent families to spend more time together, these behavioral changes largely disappeared once normal routines resumed.

During the lockdown periods, there was significant attention given to the way fathers in the United States and elsewhere increased their participation in the intimate, daily tasks of raising children. Many observers hoped this would lead to a permanent reshaping of fatherhood, characterized by greater flexibility and a more equitable sharing of caregiving responsibilities.

However, Lee Gettler, a professor of anthropology and chair of the anthropology department at the University of Notre Dame, found that these benefits did not outlast the pandemic. Gettler is also an affiliated faculty member at the William J. Shaw Center for Children and Families and the Eck Institute for Global Health.

COVID didn’t really lead to a large-scale uptick in this new vision for fathering on the part of dads across the board, Gettler said.

Gettler noted that initial reports on the topic often lacked a broader perspective on the realities facing fathers, particularly regarding economic inequality and workplace precarity.

To investigate these dynamics, Gettler and coauthor Sarah Hoegler Dennis, a postdoctoral research associate, utilized 15 years of longitudinal data. The researchers focused on a major metropolitan area in Cebu, Philippines, to gain a non-Euro-American perspective on paternal behavior.

The Philippines served as a critical site for this study because the country implemented some of the strictest government-mandated quarantine guidelines and had one of the longest lockdown periods in the world.

The research team tracked a large sample of men who were approximately 25 years old at the start of the study. The team has spent nearly 20 years studying fathering and the biology of fatherhood in Cebu, observing that fathers in the region have become more involved over the last few decades in a manner that mirrors trends in the United States.

To measure the impact of the pandemic, the researchers analyzed socio-demographic and caregiving data collected in two pre-pandemic waves, in 2009 and 2014, and a post-pandemic wave from 2022 to 2023.

The analysis specifically focused on fathers who had young children at home both before and after the pandemic. The team measured involvement across three primary categories:

• Routine, hands-on care for babies and young children.
• Educational caregiving tasks.
• Recreational play and activities.

The findings indicated that fathering behaviors, for the most part, did not change significantly between the period before COVID-19 began and the period shortly after the pandemic ended.

There was this idea out there that a meaningful percentage of dads were spending more time with their kids during the lockdown periods, even if they were still working, and that the dynamics of COVID would lead to this long-term effect on what and how much dads were doing within their families, Gettler said. And we just didn’t see that prevailing change.

Gettler concluded that as life returned to normal, fathers generally returned to the same caregiving patterns they had established before the pandemic.

There was, however, one notable exception to this trend. The researchers found that fathers who moved from being employed to either unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic showed a noticeable increase in their involvement with their children’s educational care, and this change persisted.

We see this link with employment status and fathers’ ability to spend more time helping kids with school work and homework, Gettler said. He added that this was the only indication that pandemic conditions contributed to a lasting change in home behavior.

the research suggests that a father’s employment status is the primary predictor of the amount of care he provides to his children.

Gettler argues that if society wants to see a permanent shift in fatherhood behavior, it must implement structural changes within the workplace. He pointed to the need for paid paternity leave and widespread flexibility regarding working hours and remote work options.

Such policy changes could support new norms for men as caregivers, allowing them to remain involved in their children’s lives without the requirement of facing unemployment or underemployment.

Gettler emphasized that while the pandemic may have habituated more fathers to a more active caregiving role, the environment must now be structured to enable that behavior to continue.

You’ll see questions remaining about how we can continue to encourage dads in dual-parent families to pull their weight, be a supportive partner or to balance the responsibilities of what it takes to run a household and take care of young children. COVID exposed or habituated more dads to what that can look like, but now we need to enable them to continue that behavior.

Lee Gettler