Satisfaction with family status and housework participation in modern China

Journal article

This paper analyses data of the Women Status Survey 2010 to investigate the association between satisfaction with family status and housework participation in dual-earner married couples in China. We examine the association by OLS regression models and structural equation models (SEM), taking account of time constraints, economic resources and other demographic characteristics. Results suggest that both men and women are less satisfied with their family status if they share more housework than their partners’, after controlling for household income, relative economic contribution, educational qualifications and other factors. Moreover, relative housework contribution is associated more consistently and significantly with satisfaction with family status than absolute housework time. In SEM, we include a correlated error term between housework time and satisfaction in our models to take endogeneity between these factors into account. For both urban men and women, relative contribution of housework but not absolute time of housework, is still negatively associated with family status satisfaction.

Authors: Kan, MY; He, G; Wu, X

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Emerald
• Journal: Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research
• Volume: 16
• Pages: 65-87
• Publication date: 2021-01-25
• Acceptance date: 2020-10-27
• DOI: 10.1108/S1530-353520210000016004
• ISSN: 1530-3535
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR