Husbands and wives are happier when they share household and child-rearing responsibilities

Published: April 8, 2013

family-funAlthough no exact formula for marital bliss exists, a University of Missouri researcher has found that husbands and wives are happier when they share household and child-rearing responsibilities. However, sharing responsibilities doesn’t necessarily mean couples divide chores equally, said Adam Galovan, a doctoral student in the MU Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

“Sharing can mean something different to every couple,” Galovan said. “It could be taking turns changing diapers or one parent watching the children while the other prepares dinner. Doing things together and having mutual, agreed-upon divisions of labor benefitted both spouses.”

Galovan and his Brigham Young University and Utah State University colleagues surveyed 160 heterosexual couples to see how the parents divided household responsibilities and how those chores affected the husbands’ and wives’ relationships. The couples were married for an average of five years and had at least one child age five or younger. Most of the parents were between 25 and 30 years old, and about 40 percent of the women had full- or part-time jobs.

“The more wives perceived that husbands were engaged in routine family work tasks, the better the relationships were for both partners,” Galovan said. “Wives in our study viewed father involvement and participation in household chores as related. Doing household chores and being engaged with the children seem to be important ways for husbands to connect with their wives, and that connection is related to better couple relationships.”

The bonds between fathers and their children also contributed to couples’ marital satisfaction, Galovan said.

“When wives felt their husbands were close to their children, both spouses reported better marriages,” said Galovan. “The father-child bond was particularly important for wives.”

Couples should realize that transitioning into parenthood requires an adjustment period, and it is normal for husbands and wives to feel stressed, Galovan said. To counteract the stress, he recommends that parents make each other a priority.

“Find ways to connect throughout the day, even if it’s just doing dishes together or watching a movie,” Galovan said. “These simple connections in daily life seem to enhance couples’ marital satisfaction and improve the quality of their relationships.”

ᔥUniversity of Missouri , Columbia:The study, “Father Involvement, Father-Child Relationship Quality, and Satisfaction with Family Work: Actor and Partner Influences on Marital Quality,” was published in the Journal of Family Issues. The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is part of the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences.

Video games helping children manage chronic pain

Published: April 5, 2013

The Pain Medicine Care Complex utilizes one-of-a-kind video gaming therapy, holistic therapeutic tools, and digital data collection to enable short and long-term measurement of patient progress. For the first time, physicians are able to quantitatively measure pain and assess treatment progress in pediatric patients—all within an environment that was specially designed for their needs. The data collected during therapy allows the physician to determine the optimal course of treatment for each patient and forms the backbone of the ongoing research in the Institute. Through a cost-effective, continuous loop where data drives clinical care, and clinical care drives future research, Children’s National is developing innovative, evidence-based solutions to help eliminate pediatric pain, transforming the way care is delivered to children in the United States and around the world.

Learn more about the clinical care in the Pain Medicine Care Complex.

What Attracts People to Violent Movies?

Published: March 28, 2013
Violent movie posters, Chor Bazaar, Mumbai, India.JPG

Image: gruntzooki Flickr

Why are audiences attracted to bloodshed, gore and violence? A recent study from researchers at the University of Augsburg, Germany and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people are more likely to watch movies with gory scenes of violence if they felt there was meaning in confronting violent aspects of real life.

Anne Bartsch, University of Augsburg, Germany and Louise Mares, University of Wisconsin-Madison, will present their findings at the 63rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association. Their study examined whether these serious, contemplative, and truth-seeking motivations for exposure to violent portrayals are more than just an intellectual pleasure. They invited a large binational sample from Germany and the US (total of 482 participants), ranging in age from 18-82, and with varying levels of education. Participants viewed film trailers featuring different levels of gore and meaningfulness, and rated their likelihood of watching the full movie. They also indicated their perceptions of the film (how gory, meaningful, thought-provoking, suspenseful, etc.).

Earlier studies have suggested that audiences are not necessarily attracted to violence per se, but seem to be drawn to violent content because they anticipate other benefits, such as thrill and suspense.

These findings suggest that such hedonistic pleasures are only part of the story about why we willingly expose ourselves to scenes of bloodshed and aggression. Some types of violent portrayals seem to attract audiences because they promise to satisfy truth-seeking motivations by offering meaningful insights into some aspect of the human condition.

“Perhaps depictions of violence that are perceived as meaningful, moving and thought-provoking can foster empathy with victims, admiration for acts of courage and moral beauty in the face of violence, or self-reflection with regard to violent impulses,” said Bartsch. “Examining the prevalence of such prosocial responses and the conditions under which they occur offers a theoretically intriguing and socially valuable direction for further work.”

ᔥ?University of Wisconsin-Madison

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