Examines how much fathers participate in child care and factors related to it. Findings indicate that hours on the job keep some men from active fathering, but if they begin taking care of young children, a continuing pattern is established. Mothers' child-care hours are positively related to fathers' child care, and fathers do more with sons.…

Longitudinal data collected from teenagers were analyzed for types of household chores the teens perform. The study determined that girls devoted more time to household tasks than boys, while both their efforts were greater in larger families and single-parent families. High school males spent more time on extracurricular and leisure activities,…

Reports on a recently developed scale that examined adolescents'(N=400) perceptions of their family responsibility-taking. Results indicate that adolescents who felt they assumed more family responsibility reported less depression, more intimate relationships with their parents, and higher self-esteem. Adolescents viewed family…

First-married couples (n=1,467) interviewed for the National Survey of Families and Households were studied to evaluate how 2 life-course measures, work history and marital timing, predicted the time each spouse spent doing mundane housework. Direct relations were found for each spouse's work history on husbands' contributions to housework.…

Cleanliness preferences may be related to the compatibility of college roommates and hence relevant to students' satisfaction with and retention at a college or university. Two studies were conducted to develop a scale and examine issues related to housecleaning attitudes In the first study 457 college students completed an Attitude toward…

This study examined the proportion of cooperative play in 4-year-old children across centers (housekeeping, block, manipulative, and computer) and gender in a natural classroom setting. Eighty-four white, middle-income children (41 boys and 43 girls, mean age = 55 months) were videotaped during free-play for 30 minutes per day for four weeks in…

This article presents an exploratory study that furthers our understanding of the functioning of two-career couples at midlife and, in particular, our understanding of the husband's contributions to family and household activities. More specifically, it addresses the following questions regarding dual-career couples: (a) Whose career has…

Anticipated levels of 2 types of work-family conflict (WFC) were studied among 358 students from 2 universities. The study examined the contribution of gender, parental models of child care and housework, and self-efficacy to the variance in anticipated WFC. Findings demonstrated that the bidirectionality of the relations between work and family…

Division of labor in the family is viewed as an indicator of relative power and justice in a marital relationship. During the transition to parenthood it becomes one of the most salient correlates of marital satisfaction. This study examines the relationship between the division of family labor and marital quality as well as changes in this…

Analyzed the housework time of 1,618 White couples. Found that the salience of work and family roles in the family life cycle affected the respective amounts of time that spouses allocated to household labor. Women spent less time in housework before and after childbearing stages, and husbands spent more time in domestic labor during periods of…

Patterns of time allocation of parents were examined for 29 mothers in one-parent households and for 30 mothers and 30 fathers jointly heading two-parent households. Mothers in two-parent households differed significantly from the other groups in time allocated to employment/unpaid work, household work, and leisure. (Author/CH)

This study of 75 families with at least one preschool child examined the effects of sex-role orientation and wife's employment status on the division of housework and child care and husband and wife's satisfaction with that division. Results indicate that where wives work outside the home, husbands and wives share child care and housework more.…

Compared preschoolers' and parents' reports of division of labor in single- versus dual-earner homes. Found that children with nonemployed mothers underestimated mother's responsibilities and overestimated sharing of caregiving by parents. Daughters in dual-earner families believed fathers engaged in more caregiving than parents indicated. All…

Three principles of work distribution were considered: (1) direct cause; (2) self-regulation; and (3) continuing responsibility. Children of 8, 11, and 14 years of age performed a job sorting task and commented on the fairness of work arrangements in vignettes. Results showed a differential development for the three principles rather than a…

Proposes a framework that considers differences in the type of work contributions to family (amount, style, person specificity, and consensus), the impact of various circumstances (age, gender, competence, preference, family position of individual, ethnic background, custom, parents' needs, or availability of children), and the feelings people…