The study, which was led by Dr. Daniel Carson of Georgia State University, involved just under 500 families. The data were collected through the 2006 Marital and Relationship Study, which investigated relations between heterosexual couples.
It showed that the families who split child care duties evenly reported greater satisfaction – both emotionally and sexually.
At the same time, men and women reported feeling less satisfied in relationships where a woman assumed 60 percent or more of the child care duties. Interestingly, the same was not true when men assumed most of the child care responsibilities.
“One of the most important findings is that the only childcare arrangement that appears really problematic for the quality of both a couple’s relationship and sex life is when the woman does most or all of the childcare,” Carson said.
Sir Cary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology at Manchester Business School, says the findings aren’t particularly surprising. “If you have a ‘new’ man who is happy to share childcare, he probably invests more in the relationship anyway,” Cooper said.
Cooper added that more and more men are seeing child care as part of their relationship duties–a major change from the past. “Increasingly there’s a lot of pressure on men who wouldn’t normally do that–the question is would that make a difference in the relationship. I think it could do,” he said.
