Abstract
The purpose of this study is to make a scale with which to measure the distress of the married couple and to analyze its causes. The sample consists of 836 middle aged women with husband and children. The children are either studying at or recently graduated from universities in Gunma. The survey was conducted from July to August 1997. The method of Multivariate Classification Analysis was used, and the main findings are as follows.
1) Fifty point five percent of wives answered in the negative to a questionnaire item of “feel happy when I pass the time together with husband, ” and 10 to 20% answered in the affirmative to the items related to negative feelings toward husband.
2) The causal factors on wife's distress are the companionship pattern between husband and wife, the balance of mutual services between husband and wife, the combination pattern of husband participating in child care and helping housework, the pattern of attitude to division of labor between husband, and wife, the wife's role identity, the dependence on wife in housework, the wife's working career, and the experience of menopausal disorders.
