Seeking and giving emotional care When is marriage a safe haven for working parents?

Seeking and giving emotional care

When is marriage a safe haven for working parents?

Alexandrov

Elina O.

Alexandrov, Elina O.

Author

University of California, Berkeley

Center for Working Families

University of California, Berkeley. Center for Working Families

Sponsor

text

working paper

Berkeley, CA Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley 2001 2001 monographic

Berkeley, CA

Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley

2001

monographic

English eng

English

eng

electronic application/pdf 51 p. born digital

electronic

application/pdf

51 p.

born digital

What does the time deficit sharply experienced by most working parents have to do with marital adjustment? The results of a qualitative analysis of relationship interviews collected from working parents of 6-year-olds suggest that time, gender, and spouses' styles of attachment are among the major factors associated with emotional care in couple relationships. I argue that the "time bind" working parents endure might interfere with their ability to work out their conflicts and fulfill each other's emotional needs to mutual satisfaction. Although marital partners' styles of attachment to their partners are associated with their ability to seek and give emotional care, the decisive factor in how spouses feel about their relationship is whether they eventually take time to show mutual understanding and compassion with respect to one or both partners' emotional distress. In addition, the findings reveal gender differences in the ways husbands and wives deal with careseeking and caregiving and engage in every stage of emotion interaction process, confirming the earlier findings that women take on a greater share of emotion work than men.

Elina O. Alexandrov is a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Working Families and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper No. 25

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper

No. 25

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wfn_bwpaper_1.pdf

MChB English eng

MChB

English eng

English

eng