Division of housework and child care, conflict, and relationship satisfaction in dual-earner couples

Although women’s relationship satisfaction is known to covary with satisfaction regarding couples’ division of housework and child care, the factors mediating these associations are rarely examined. To test the hypothesis that relationship conflict mediates the link between housework and relationship satisfaction, 207 dual-earner couples with young children completed questionnaires about their relationship and how they divided housework and child care. Most couples were satisfied with the division of labor, and women did most of the housework and child care. For husbands and wives, dissatisfaction with division of housework and child care was associated with more perceived conflicts, which in turn covaried with lower relationship satisfaction. Division of housework was more strongly associated with relationship satisfaction for women than for men, but there were no gender differences for the impact of child care responsibilities on relationship satisfaction. In general, subjective evaluation of the division of labor had stronger effects on relationship conflicts and satisfaction than the division of labor itself.