The relationship between wives' communication and husbands' sharing of housework and childcare duties

Abstract

Today, the amount of time fathers of preschool children in Japan spend on housework and childcare is gradually increasing. However, in many households, wives still do most of the housework and childcare. To clarify the factors that increase the share of housework and childcare taken on by men, several hypotheses have been proposed in the field of family sociology, those studies found that each factor in the hypotheses might promote husbands' share of the family duties. However, conventional hypotheses do not address the daily communication of couples. Daily communication between a husband and wife is also an important factor for couples in clinical psychology, and negotiations related to housework and childcare are included in their daily communications. Therefore, in this study, even after controlling for variables related to hypotheses suggested the past, there is a possibility of the effect of wives' daily communication on husbands' division of housework and childcare. Among the wives' communication, passive communication has been associated with a low share of housework and childcare by husbands. By contrast, wives' active communication is associated with a higher share of housework and childcare among husbands. This suggests that an assertive attitude of clearly conveying the wife's intentions is also important for the husband's participation in the family duties.