Fathers’ caregiving and breadwinning: A gender congruence analysis

Maurer, Pleck, and Rane's Gender Congruence Theory was further expanded via Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and tested to predict parenting behaviors in fathers and mothers. Results provided some support for the revised theory for fathers: Both perceived expectations from their wives for caregiving behavior and the perceived caregiving behaviors of other fathers positively predicted their own caregiving behavior, whereas no independent variables were able to predict their breadwinning behavior. Results provided little support for the revised theory for mothers: Only the perceived caregiving behaviors of other mothers positively predicted their own caregiving behavior, and no independent variables predicted their breadwinning behavior. Role Identity was not a significant predictor of behavior in either role for fathers or mothers.