2006 Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 102-111
Objectives: As a preliminary survey, to define the participants' views on husbands' childcare support for mothers with infants and on marital relationships, and to identify the two concepts' factor structure. Methods: A self-entry, anonymous questionnaire survey drawn up by the researcher was carried out, targeting 95 mothers who visited Health Center "A" for their children's 18-month health checkups, and their husbands. The questionnaire focused on issues such as "husbands' childcare support" and "marital relationships," as well as the subjects' basic attributes. Results and discussion: Valid responses were obtained from 84 wives and 34 husbands. 1) As a result of conducting a factor analysis of "husbands' childcare support" and "marital relationships," each was found to constitute one factor. 2) With respect to the average scores of a number of questions pertaining to "husbands' childcare support" and "marital relationships" and the average factor scores for "marital relationships," the husbands' average scores tended to be higher than those of the wives. 3) If a husband and wife were regarded as a pair, the couple was deemed to have more or less the same awareness/in their answers concerning "husbands' childcare support" and "marital relationships." Conclusion: This study suggested the need to carry out a reexamination in the future by increasing the number of data to sufficient levels, and to take into consideration the subjects' basic attributes and special characteristics.
