A new study has revealed that the couple who wash the dishes together stay together — in fact, those who share household chores are happier than those where one partner is the breadwinner and the other is the homemaker.
Lead researcher Rod Beaujot of University of Western Ontario said the findings showed the value of providing equal opportunities in the workplace and better childcare, and the benefit of men taking an active part in domestic chores.
“Adequate childcare facilities and equal opportunities for parental leave should be a focus of public policy. And, by supporting the shared-roles model, there would be support for the type of family model that many would prefer with less burn out,” he was quoted by the ‘Daily Mail’ as saying. For their study, the researchers analysed national surveys in which nearly 50,000 adults answered questions about their lives, including the amount of paid and unpaid work that they did.
They estimated the levels of happiness experienced by the participants, taking their personal circumstances into account. The happiest couples share equally the unpaid work, are most likely to be both working and either do not have children or have older children who do not need constant care.
The study found that religious families are most likely to stick to traditional roles, with the husband working and the wife staying at home and doing most of the chores. However, reversing the roles does not work because the man is unfulfilled and the woman feels the pressure as a breadwinner. The study also looked at other types of partnership. It found that women who are both the major breadwinner and do housework — called the “women’s double burden model” — are stressed and have low levels of satisfaction. “For both men and women, the highest average level of happiness and satisfaction with life occurs within the shared-roles model,” the study concluded.
PTI