Workload Recovery Influenced By Housework And Leisure Activity Balance

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Male and female spouses’ recovery from the burdens of perform could possibly be influenced by how they balance their housework and leisure activity time, researchers from the University of Southern California report in the Journal of Family members Psychology. 52% of households with married couples have both spouses out in full time jobs, the authors explain. Could be the winner simply the one who gets essentially the most support with housework? Yes, but it isn’t as simple as that.

In this study the researchers tracked 30 double-income households about their homes – their each and every move and where they had been, was logged every ten minutes. The couples were aged (median) 41 years and had at the least 1 child within the household aged among eight and ten.

For the females, their activities had been listed in order of frequency:HouseworkCommunicationLeisureFor the males, their activities were also listed in order of frequency:Leisure activitiesCommunicationsHouseworkPut simply, husbands spent more time on their leisure activities although their female spouses dedicated much more of their time to housework.

The authors found that whichever spouse spent far more time on housework tended to have greater evening cortisol levels, as well as poorer afternoon-to-evening recovery.

Cortisol is the main tension hormone. It flows through our bodies everyday, helping us prepare for mental and physical demands. As evening approaches and our rate of activity slows down, cortisol levels typically starts to drop. When cortisol levels drop we can then unwind.

If your evening cortisol levels stay high you will continue feeling stressed, and also have a greater danger of eventually developing mental and physical illnesses. Studies have linked chronically high evening cortisol levels to decreased life expectancy.

Wives whose husbands helped out a lot with housework had faster recovery in the evening from greater cortisol levels.

Leisure appeared to have the biggest impact on lowering male evening cortisol levels. They also discovered that husbands whose wives spent less time on leisure activities had greater after-work recovery times.

This could easily be seen as a Catch 22 scenario. Lots of time spent on housework assists keep cortisone levels high. Even so, all the female calls for is some aid with the housework for levels to drop. Unfortunately, a male’s drop in evening cortisol levels responds best when his wife is doing the housework and he is spending far more time relaxing.

In short, it appears that what is good for the male is bad for the female, and what is good for the female will not have enough of an impact on the male.

The researchers believe that the division of labor among couples really does have an impact on either person’s physical health.

“Time spent in housework and leisure: Links with parents’ physiological recovery from perform.”
Saxbe, Darby E.; Repetti, Rena L.; Graesch, Anthony P.
Journal of Household Psychology, Vol 25(two), Apr 2011, 271-281. doi: 10.1037/a0023048

Written by Christian Nordqvist
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