Household Labor in Intergenerational Households

Bibliographic Data

ID2589992
AuthorsGlenna Spitze (corresponding author), Russell A Ward (0000-0002-2310-9477), Russell Ward
Year1995
Volume57
Issue2
Pages355
Publication date1995-05-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Marriage and the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-2445 • E-ISSN: 1741-3737
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/353689
OpenAlexW2004560727
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited4

The study of household labor has grown dramatically in recent years. Researchers have investigated how husbands and wives divide household labor, how this division is influenced by paid work, and whether husbands and wives feel the distribution is fair. However, little attention has been given to other household members. One group that has received perhaps the least attention, considering their growing numbers, is adult children who reside in parental households. Our goal is to investigate their contributions to household labor, and to determine whether patterns look different when reported by parents or adult children. Investigations of parent-adult child coresidence have noted that its determinants reflect the child's needs more than the parent's, contrary to perceived burdens of adult children in our aging society (Ward, Logan, & Spitze, 1992; see also Aquilino, 1990; Crimmins & Ingegneri, 1990; Speare & Avery, 1993). As a sideline to our earlier analysis (Ward et al., 1992), which used a local probability sample, we found that coresident adult children did a small fraction of total housework (although daughters did more than sons) and that parents with no coresident adult children did less housework than those with adult children in the household. Given our sample size and the manner in which housework was measured, we feel that more attention to adult children's housework is in order. This issue is important for two reasons. First, housework is an experience that may prepare young adults for sharing households with peers (including spouses). Although much learning of household skills occurs before age 18, young adults who stay in the parental household may face more explicit demands for participation in the work they help generate. Those who come to view this as an expected part of adult life should find the transition from the parental household to other shared living smoother than those who become accustomed to parents waiting them. Second, housework is part of the larger picture of intergenerational exchanges. Adult children of any age who live in parental households may trade housework for coresidence, implicitly or explicitly, or housework may be part of what parents provide without any clear return. Since coresidence is becoming more common, some have questioned its effects on parental well-being and parent-child relations (see Ward & Spitze, 1992). Whether adult children share in housework is likely to affect the well-being of parents who may otherwise have an increased burden. On the other hand, adult children may experience heavy housework burdens as part of caregiving for elderly parents. Thus, housework may be part of the overall exchange in these households and patterns of housework may have implications for how equity is defined. CHILDREN'S PARTICIPATION IN HOUSEHOLD LABOR Parents give four kinds of reasons for assigning chores to children: developmental (building character, responsibility), reciprocal obligation (part of being in a family), extrinsic (parents need the help), and task learning (White & Brinkerhoff, 1981a). Development of character and responsibility are by far the most common reasons cited. The developmental rationale becomes somewhat less salient with child's age (presumably teens have developed some responsibility, or parents have given up), while other rationales increase with age. Extrinsic reasons are much more common in single-parent families (White & Brinkerhoff, 1981a). Since most parents subscribe to traditional gender role attitudes, the housework of boys and girls mirrors that of adults, with girls doing stereotypically female chores and spending more time at housework (Benin & Edwards, 1990; Blair, 1992; Goldscheider & Waite, 1991; Hilton & Haldemann, 1991; Timmer, Eccles, & O'Brien, 1985; White & Brinkerhoff, 1981b). Gender differences increase with age; teenage girls spend about twice as much time in housework as boys (Timmer et al

Demographic economics · Developmental psychology · Economics · Sample (material · Young adult · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology · Rural development and sustainability · Work-Family Balance Challenges

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