Patterns of Paternal Involvement of Korean Fathers: A Person-Centered Approach

Abstract

Given roles and expectations of father involvement in South Korea are in transition from traditional breadwinner to an involved caregiver to children, it is plausible that Korean fathers show diverse involvement behaviors in the contexts of work, family, and parenting. Using a person-centered approach, we explored if there were groupings of Korean fathers who could be identified from their involvement with their children. We also examined if those subgroup memberships were related to various factors in work, family, and parenting domains. With a sample of 212 married working fathers and the 12 items of involvement behaviors, we found four heterogeneous subgroups of people: low-involved, accessibility-focused, involved-but-less-accessible, and highly involved fathers. Significant differences among the four profiles were also found regarding various factors such as job stress, work and family conflict, work schedule, maternal employment, parenting satisfaction, and perceived level of involvement. Suggestions for future research, practitioners, and policymakers were discussed.