Despite the recent change in parents' beliefs in parental roles and increased societal need for coparenting, fathers’ involvement in childcare is still lacking. The present study aimed to explore father's involvement in childcare with the focus on s... Despite the recent change in parents' beliefs in parental roles and increased societal need for coparenting, fathers’ involvement in childcare is still lacking. The present study aimed to explore father's involvement in childcare with the focus on spousal interactions, as well as ways to encourage cooperative and harmonious coparenting. Fathers' role is influenced more by the context, especially mothers' characteristics, than by fathers' personal characteristics (Goldherg, 2014; Henley & Pasley, 2005). In fact, wives intervene more in husbands' parenting behaviors than husbands do in wives' parenting behaviors (Schoppe-Sullivan, Kotila, Jia, Lang, & Bower, 2013). In international literature, maternal gatekeeping has been consistently suggested as a main form of interaction through which mothers influence fathers' parenting. Maternal gatekeeping occurs when parents interact in their joint task of childcare. It represents mothers' behaviors that restrict or support spousal cooperation in family work, including childcare tasks (Allen & Hawkins, 1999; Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2008), and comprises two subdomains, gate-closing and gate-opening. Although numerous past studies have identified maternal gatekeeping as an important factor in explaining fathers' involvement in childcare (Schoppe-Sullivan, Lauren, Meghan, Daniel, & Claire, 2015), little domestic research has explored maternal gatekeeping and other spousal coparenting interactions. As cultural expectations and social context are known to have significant impact on parenting and coparenting behaviors (McHale & Lindahl, 2011), it is important to examine factors associated with maternal gatekeeping and its influence on coparenting in the Korean sociocultural context. To address this need, three studies were conducted in the present research. In Study 1, the coparenting experience of couples with children under 6 was qualitatively examined from the perspectives of both fathers and mothers. In Study 2, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify factors that influence Korean mothers' gatekeeping and their relative influence, using paired data of married couples. In Study 3, Actor-Partner Independence Model (APIM) was analyzed using paired data to explore the effect of couples' parental role beliefs on their own and spouses' actual involvement in childcare, as well as the mediating and moderating effects of maternal gatekeeping in this link. The main findings of the present research are as follows. In Study 1, the results of inductive analysis on coparenting experience showed that first, fathers' and mothers' coparenting was influenced by not only personal factors but also by family- and work-related factors, and mothers and fathers were both influenced by their and spouses' beliefs and attitudes toward parental role, spousal communication about childcare, help from surrounding others, and families of origin. Second, mothers were influenced more by personal factors such as identity and responsibility as a mother, and anxiety and guilt about entrusting childcare to others. In contrast, fathers were influenced more by family factors such as those related to their spouses, as well as factors related to work. Third, fathers' coparenting experiences were characterized by taking a step back from the childcare responsibility, experiencing a sense of unfitness and isolation, and participating in childcare and building bond with children through relationship. Fourth, mothers' coparenting experiences were characterized by confusion from ambivalent emotions and attitudes toward childcare, unintentional assuming of the roles of evaluator and manager, and efforts toward cooperative coparenting. Fifth, fathers who showed passive attitudes toward childcare and failed to form close bond with their children became even less involved in childcare and more distant from family. In contrast, fathers who put effort to be involved in childcare through their relationship with spouses and bond with children found participation in childcare increasingly easier and could form cooperative coparenting through mutual communication and sharing of childcare responsibilities with spouses. Lastly, both mothers and fathers ed that mothers' attitude and behaviors can restrict or facilitate fathers' participation in coparenting, which corresponds with maternal gatekeeping discussed in previous studies. In Study 2, hierarchical regression analysis on maternal gatekeeping revealed that first, mothers' gate-closing and gate-opening behaviors were influenced by mothers' satisfaction with fathers' childcare, mothers' parental role beliefs, marriage satisfaction, and marital conflicts. Second, mothers' gate-closing was also significantly explained by mothers' separation anxiety, perfectionism in childcare, neurosis, and self-efficacy in childcare. Third, mothers' gate-opening was significantly explained by support from others for childcare and fathers' self-efficacy in childcare. Fourth, mothers' personal factors were identified as the strongest in explaining maternal gatekeeping, and such result was consistent in both gate-opening and gate-closing. In Study 3, APIM was analyzed to investigate the mediating and moderating effects of maternal gatekeeping in the relationship between couples' parental role beliefs and their own and spouses' involvement in childcare. First, there were significant actor effect and partner effect in the direct and indirect links between couples' parental role beliefs and their involvement in childcare. Fathers' equal parental role beliefs had a positive effect on their involvement in childcare, and a negative effect on mothers' involvement in childcare. Mothers' parental role beliefs had an indirect effect on both their and fathers' involvement in childcare via maternal gatekeeping as a mediator. Second, mother-ed gate-closing mediated the link between mothers’ parental role beliefs and their increased involvement in childcare, while mother-ed gate-opening mediated the link between mothers' parental role beliefs and their decreased involvement in childcare. Also, mother-ed gate-closing mediated the relationship between mothers' parental role beliefs and fathers' decreased involvement in childcare, and father-ed maternal gate-opening mediated the relationship between mothers' parental role beliefs and fathers' increased involvement in childcare. Fourth, the relationship between fathers' beliefs and involvement in childcare was moderated by mothers' gate-closing behaviors. More specifically, when fathers perceived low degree of maternal gate-closing, their beliefs in role equality was positively associated with their involvement in childcare. However, when fathers perceived high degree of maternal gate-closing, their beliefs in role equality showed negative association with their involvement in childcare. In summary, the present study examined the characteristics of parental role beliefs and involvement in childcare of Korean parents with infants. Also, maternal gatekeeping, which reflects mothers’ control over fathers' childcare behaviors, was phenomenologically revealed, and mothers were found to play an important role as a restrictor or facilitator in coparenting. In addition, maternal gatekeeping was influenced by mothers' psychological characteristics and beliefs, as well as marital relationship. Based on the present findings, implications for counseling, parenting education, and educational programs for mothers, limitations of the study, and directions for future research were discussed. The present research started from the following research question: "Despite the increase in numbers of men who value the paternal role in childcare, why is there a gap between fathers' awareness of their role in parenting and their actual involvement in childcare?" The present research has significance in that it increased the understanding on the interactive coparenting process of couples with infants, and that it explored how maternal gatekeeping is revealed in the coparenting of Korean parents with infants. Especially, mothers' gate-closing was found to moderate the relationship between fathers' beliefs and involvement in childcare, suggesting that mothers play an important role in the gap between fathers' awareness and participation in child care. In addition, the present research has significance in that it examined couples' beliefs and involvement in childcare, maternal gatekeeping, and factors that affect maternal gatekeeping from the perspectives of both mothers and fathers.
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