The effect of father-child engagement on maternal life satisfaction in South Asian contexts: evidence from MICS surveys in Pakistan and Bangladesh

Research suggests father involvement in childcare can elevate maternal life satisfaction but has been undertaken almost exclusively in Western countries. This study investigates whether the association holds in countries where gender complementarity is normative, specifically testing the applicability of role theory and family systems theory on mothers’ life satisfaction in under-studied South Asian contexts. We utilize data from Round 6 of UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), harmonized by IPUMS MICS, for Bangladesh and for three of Pakistan’s provinces. The analytic sample was restricted to married women with 3–4-year-old children (N = 34,126). We ran multilevel, mixed-effects logistic regression models for both countries and for Pakistan’s provinces to estimate the relationship between maternal life satisfaction and father’s participation in six different activities (reading or looking at picture books, singing, playing, telling stories, taking child outside, and counting/naming/drawing things). Father reading with child was positively associated with maternal life satisfaction in Bangladesh, and both reading and counting were positively associated in Pakistan’s Sindh province, while storytelling was negatively related in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Other father activities with children were not significantly associated with maternal life satisfaction. We theorize when fathers perform activities consistent with gender norms, mothers experience higher satisfaction, but when they perform activities that transgress dominant gender norms, women feel uneasy. In conclusion, father-child engagement is sometimes linked to higher maternal life satisfaction in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but this depends on the activity and the context.