Key to a Good Marriage? Share the Housework

Jul 01, 07:26 PM

Current Headlines: The percentage of Americans who consider children very important to a successful marriage has dropped sharply since 1990, and more now cite the sharing of household chores as pivotal, according to a new survey.

The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages well behind sharing household chores, adequate income, a happy sex life and faithfulness.

In a 1990 World Values Survey, children ranked third in importance among the same items, with 65 percent saying children were very important to a good marriage. Just 41 percent said so in the new survey.

Chore-sharing was cited as very important by 62 percent of respondents, up from 47 percent.

The survey also found that, by a margin of nearly 3-to-1, Americans say the main purpose of marriage is the fulfillment of adults rather than the rearing of children.

The survey's findings buttress concerns expressed by numerous scholars among them Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of Rutgers University's National Marriage Project.

The popular culture is increasingly oriented to fulfilling the X- rated fantasies and desires of adults, she warned in a recent report. Child-rearing values of sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity seem stale and musty by comparison.

Agencies

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