1999 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 87-102
This paper examined the relations of father's cooperation with family chores to mother's mental stress, child's social adaptability, and father's own personality development. 235 married couples with a primary school child lived in Saitama were selected as subjects. Two kinds of questionnaire, that is the measure of father's cooperation with family chores and father's personality development were administered to these fathers. As for mothers, three kinds of questionnaire (or test), that is the scale of mother's trait anxiety, mother's mental stress, and mother's recognition of the child's adaptability, were administered. Results showed that one of the subscales of father's cooperation with family chores named “communication between husband and wife” had significantly negative correlation with mother's mental stress, such as the lack of concentration, the feeling of isolation. and the feeling of self-blockade. Further, the children who had both higher cooperative father and less stressive mother showed higher social adaptability scores than those who had both lower cooperative father and higher stressive mother. As to father's own personality development, subscales named “support to domestic duties” and “communication between husband and wife” showed significant positive correlation with most subscales of father's personality development. These results were discussed mainly from the previous studies concerning family system.
