Health Behavior Among Men Occupying Multiple Family Roles and the Moderating Effects of Perceived Partner Relationship Quality

Details

• Personal Author:
  DePasquale, Nicole ; Polenick, Courtney A. ; Hinde, Jesse ; Bray, Jeremy W. ; Zarit, Steven H. ; Moen, Phyllis ; Hammer, Leslie B. ; Almeida, David M.
• Description:
  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.
• Subjects:
  Caregivers Family Relations Fathers Gender Identity Health Behavior Humans Interviews As Topic Male United States
• Keywords:
  Caregiving Men Fathers Health Behavior Perceived Partner Relationship Quality Sandwiched Men
• Source:
  Am J Mens Health. 12(6):2006-2017
• Pubmed ID:
  27449994
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5253342
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  F31 AG050385/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051217/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051256/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R03 AG046393/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T03 OH008435/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; UL1 TR001425/TR/NCATS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 OH008788/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U01 AG027669/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD059773/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051276/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 HD051218/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  12
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8537144c60126f2f22d4d4a9db6410fdfb6be5da023cf5f1903434ae26e74369a5a9da91ee491c86bf38306a51ebcbb0a7d1d20782b772871401ffb1d55d2a1c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/43934/cdc_43934_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 364.59 KB ]