1999 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 29-47
The purpose of this study was to examine how married women feel and think on taking care of family members in their family. “Family Care” is the new analytical concept proposed to clarify their experience concerning taking care of family members. This concept consists of three dimensions (behavioral, emotional, perceptional) and three fields (child-rearing, caring for partners, housekeeping). A questionnaire was used. Subjects were 401 pairs with the child aged 3-to 5-years old in nuclear family. The major findings are as follows; (1) Family care was unsymmetrically exectued between wives and husbands. Wives took care of their members more than husbands did. (2) Factor analysis of the perceptional dimension extracted “Negative attitude toward the whole family care” as the first factor. (3) Wives' feeling and attitude toward family care was greatly influenced by their husbands. The less their husbands took care of wives, the worse wives felt emotionally and the worse they thought of taking care of their members. (4) Employed women showed more positive attitude toward child-rearing and less negative attitude toward taking care of family members.
