Temporal Rhythms in Family Life: Seasonal Variation in the Relation Between Parental Work and Family Processes

Families with school-age children were interviewed 3 times, at 6-month intervals (winter-summer-winter), to test whether summer brings discontinuity in family processes. Longitudinal patterns of parent-child involvement, parental monitoring, and children's involvement in activities were examined for 125 families in 3 groups: DDD (consistently dual-earner), SSS (consistently single-earner), and DSD (dual-earner at Times 1 and 3, single-earner over the summer). In SSS and DSD families, mothers became more involved with their children over the summer, and the division of parenting became more traditional (with mothers more involved than fathers), whereas DDD families maintained a more egalitarian division of parenting. DSD fathers monitored their children less over the summer, whereas DDD fathers became more knowledgeable about their children's activities.