TY - JOUR
T1 - Health Behavior Among Men With Multiple Family Roles
T2 - The Moderating Effects of Perceived Partner Relationship Quality
AU - DePasquale, Nicole
AU - Polenick, Courtney A.
AU - Hinde, Jesse
AU - Bray, Jeremy W.
AU - Zarit, Steven H.
AU - Moen, Phyllis
AU - Hammer, Leslie B.
AU - Almeida, David M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2018/11/1
Y1 - 2018/11/1
N2 - Men in the United States are increasingly involved in their children’s lives and currently represent 40% of informal caregivers to dependent relatives or friends aged 18 years and older. Yet much more is known about the health effects of varying family role occupancies for women relative to men. The present research sought to fill this empirical gap by first comparing the health behavior (sleep duration, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, fast food consumption) of men who only occupy partner roles and partnered men who also fill father, informal caregiver, or both father and informal caregiver (i.e., sandwiched) roles. The moderating effects of perceived partner relationship quality, conceptualized here as partner support and strain, on direct family role–health behavior linkages were also examined. A secondary analysis of survey data from 366 cohabiting and married men in the Work, Family and Health Study indicated that men’s multiple family role occupancies were generally not associated with health behavior. With men continuing to take on more family responsibilities, as well as the serious health consequences of unhealthy behavior, the implications of these null effects are encouraging - additional family roles can be integrated into cohabiting and married men’s role repertoires with minimal health behavior risks. Moderation analysis revealed, however, that men’s perceived partner relationship quality constituted a significant factor in determining whether multiple family role occupancies had positive or negative consequences for sleep duration, alcohol consumption, and fast food consumption. These findings are discussed in terms of their empirical and practical implications for partnered men and their families.
AB - Men in the United States are increasingly involved in their children’s lives and currently represent 40% of informal caregivers to dependent relatives or friends aged 18 years and older. Yet much more is known about the health effects of varying family role occupancies for women relative to men. The present research sought to fill this empirical gap by first comparing the health behavior (sleep duration, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, fast food consumption) of men who only occupy partner roles and partnered men who also fill father, informal caregiver, or both father and informal caregiver (i.e., sandwiched) roles. The moderating effects of perceived partner relationship quality, conceptualized here as partner support and strain, on direct family role–health behavior linkages were also examined. A secondary analysis of survey data from 366 cohabiting and married men in the Work, Family and Health Study indicated that men’s multiple family role occupancies were generally not associated with health behavior. With men continuing to take on more family responsibilities, as well as the serious health consequences of unhealthy behavior, the implications of these null effects are encouraging - additional family roles can be integrated into cohabiting and married men’s role repertoires with minimal health behavior risks. Moderation analysis revealed, however, that men’s perceived partner relationship quality constituted a significant factor in determining whether multiple family role occupancies had positive or negative consequences for sleep duration, alcohol consumption, and fast food consumption. These findings are discussed in terms of their empirical and practical implications for partnered men and their families.
KW - caregiving men
KW - fathers
KW - health behavior
KW - partner support and strain
KW - sandwiched men
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85055077477&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85055077477&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1557988316660088
DO - 10.1177/1557988316660088
M3 - Article
C2 - 27449994
AN - SCOPUS:85055077477
SN - 1557-9883
VL - 12
SP - 2006
EP - 2017
JO - American Journal of Men's Health
JF - American Journal of Men's Health
IS - 6
ER -