TY - THES ID - 136303053 TI - Who is going to stay at home? Examining first-time expecting fathers’ parental leave plans in Belgium with a focus on fatherhood attitudes and partner support AU - Kirkgöz, Figen AU - van Laar, Colette AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische Wetenschappen. Opleiding Master of Psychology. Theory and Research (Leuven) PY - 2023 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Psychologie en Pedagogische Wetenschappen DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:136303053 AB - Men’s engagement with domestic roles, such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of the child, has been relatively lower than women’s in general, in part due to assumptions that men are more suited for breadwinner roles and women for caregiver roles. However, an increase has been seen in fathers’ involvement in caregiver roles in recent years, and caregiving has also been linked with beneficial outcomes both for the fathers and for the families. While research has focused on how certain factors hinder men’s engagement in communal roles, it is also crucial to understand how to foster men’s engagement in communal roles and childcare, in terms of their parental leave plans. This thesis explored how first-time expecting fathers’ fatherhood attitudes regarding caregiving and breadwinning (i.e., fathers’ thoughts on whether father’s responsibilities should lie more in being a caregiver or a provider) were related to their parental leave plans. Moreover, we also aimed to understand how female partner support towards fathers’ parental leave-taking, influences the parental leave plans of fathers based on their fatherhood attitudes regarding caregiving and breadwinning. To this end, we recruited first-time expecting fathers residing in Belgium and asked them to fill in an online survey before the birth of their child. The results revealed that with higher female partner support, fathers had higher intentions to take parental leave and expected to take it for longer durations. Moreover, when fathers thought a father should be more involved in caregiving, they also had higher intentions to take parental leave, but only when they felt that their female partners’ support was high. Thus, with low female partner support, fathers who had more caregiving attitudes did not have higher intentions to take parental leave. Finally, fathers’ thoughts on whether a father should be more involved as a provider did not relate to their parental leave plans, even if they perceived higher female partner support. These results highlight the importance of understanding how internal factors, such as fathers’ caregiving attitudes, and external factors, such as the support they perceive from their female partners, may relate to fathers’ parental leave-taking intentions. However, the current results should be interpreted with caution as the expecting fathers in the sample appeared to have high intentions to take parental leave and also scored high on variables regarding partner support, caregiving attitudes, and expected length of parental leave. These indicate restrictions of range and lack of variability on the key measurements. Future research can examine how perceived support and discouragement in other settings, such as the workplace, family, and friends, may also relate to fathers’ parental leave plans. ER -