Region - Educational Research and Reviews

Against the social background of family transformation and the restructuring of gender divisions, deep paternal involvement in parenting has become an important issue in modern family development. Drawing on family sociology and the coparenting framework, this study took 204 pairs of parents of primary school students as research subjects to examine the impact of maternal gatekeeping on paternal involvement. The results showed that mothers in contemporary Chinese families mainly adopted positive gatekeeping behaviors, and paternal involvement presented a structural imbalance characterized by high affective involvement but low instrumental involvement. Maternal opening behavior significantly promoted the initiation and maintenance of paternal involvement, while maternal closing behavior had an inhibiting effect. The effect of maternal gatekeeping was independent of demographic variables and acted as a core family interaction mechanism affecting paternal involvement. This study confirms that maternal gatekeeping is a stable predictor of paternal involvement, providing empirical evidence for understanding coparenting in Chinese families.