Fathers’ and Mothers’ Roles in the Family

Abstract

Within the family context, social support and family climate variables have been linked in different ways to coping among men and women. Caring duties have often been considered as the mothers1 major role among families of disabled children, whereas fathers tended to assist mothers in their overload of duties, thus identifying themselves as mothers’ helpers. This division of responsibility between the sexes may be in part a function of gender-related differences, but obviously, strictly traditional sex-roles are no longer the norm in our society. In the current discussion, mothers and fathers will be compared and contrasted, but the reader should keep in mind that each parent in reality takes on the most personally relevant and appropriate role, regardless of traditional distinctions. The entrance of computers into the homes of disabled children enables the development of a new parental role ~ in support of the home-computing performance. This chapter aims to investigate fathers’ and mothers’ roles and preferences within the family, with the goal of identifying new roles adapted to sex differences.