This study examines (a) whether widowhood affects the performance of daily household activities, (b) the extent to which dependence on children mediates the effect of widowhood on subsequent housework performance, and (c) the extent to which these patterns vary by gender. Using the Changing Lives of Older Couples study, a prospective survey of…

In the past 20 years, the percentage of married women in the Canadian labor force has risen dramatically. Despite women's increased participation in the labor force, child care and housework are still largely done by women. While the difficulty of combining work and family responsibilities can result in work/family conflicts, a variety of…

Potential costs and benefits associated with fathers' participation in household chores and child care, here called "family work," were explored in this study. More specifically, the extent to which fathers' participation in family work was related to fathers' experience of stress and father-child reations were examined. The study involved 91…

A comparison of Soviet time-budgets from the 1920's and the 1960's shows continuity in the extent to which employed Soviet women have far more housework and far less free time than their male counterparts. (Author)

Determined if adolescents are becoming more egalitarian in their approach to sex roles. Examined adolescents' (N=893) attitudes toward household tasks based on gender and maternal employment. Findings indicated that adolescents' attitudes were still somewhat traditional. (BH)

The Girl Scouts, a national organization, is open to any girl who expresses her desire to join and voluntarily accepts the promise and the laws. The object of the Girl Scouts is to bring to all girls the opportunity for group experience outdoor life, and to learn through work, but more by play, to serve their community. Patterned after the Girl…

Examined the relationship between household work and employment in families (N=206). Employment of the wife was significantly related to her time in housework, but not her husband's or children's time contributions to household tasks. A lessening of the time crunch was indicated compared with time budgets collected in the 1960s. (Author/JAC)

In Poland over 70 percent of married women are gainfully employed. They perform traditional female roles as wives, mothers and housekeepers, as well as the modern role of employee. Coping with both roles at the same time has important social consequences for women, such as family and career conflict. (Author)

A survey investigated the interaction of sex role attitudes, division of household and child care responsibilities, role strain, work satisfaction, and family functioning among 87 working-class Mexican American women in dual-earner families with children. Respondents did not subscribe to the "superwoman" myth but, rather, endorsed an expansion of…

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…