Fathers’ and mothers’ enjoyment of childcare: the role of multitasking

Using data from the latest edition of the Italian Time Use Survey (ITUS, 2013–2014), we analyse 31,309 childcare episodes to investigate the relationship between multitasking (i.e., the combination of childcare with housework tasks) and parents’ enjoyment of the time they spent on childcare, with a gender perspective. To this end, we rely on information from the episode enjoyment scores the respondents used to evaluate the degree of (un)pleasantness associated with the different activities they recorded in a daily diary. These episode enjoyment scores are a novelty in the ITUS, and provide a unique measure of the respondents’ momentary assessments of their subjective well-being. Our results highlight the existence of a negative relationship between multitasking and parental well-being when spending time on childcare for both mothers and fathers, regardless of the nature of the childcare activity they were performing (i.e., routine or recreational childcare). Our findings add to prior research by shedding new light on the role of multitasking as a relevant contextual characteristic of care that affects the well-being of fathers, as well as of mothers.