This study was designed to examine wives' perceptions of equity/inequity in the performance of child-rearing role. Questionnaires were administered to wives who had at least one kindergartner. They assessed equity/inequity in the performance of child-rearing role. Measures of their contentment/distress with the relationships and their marital stability were also taken. They were asked to consider the major cause of equity/inequity and to rate the cause on 15 semantic differential scales. Furthermore, they rated their sex-role attitudes using Spence & Helmreich's (1978) Attitudes Toward Women Scale.
The main results are as follows:
1) Perceptions of equity were accompanied with four kinds of moods, labeled as “negative feeling toward themselves”, “guilt feeling toward their husband and themselves”, “contentment”, and “anger with their husbands”.
2) The major cause of equity/inequity was perceived along four dimensions, labeled as “locus of causality/ self-controllability”, “stability”, “other-controllability”, “globability”.
3) According to analyses using Davidson’s method (1984), more underbenefited wives were, they felt less satisfied and angrier. These results were consistent with equity theory.
4) Wives with traditional sex-role attitudes were more sensitive to equity/inequity of the relationships than those with non-traditional attitudes.
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