Edward J. Metzen

Housework Time of Husband and Wife

This study examined factors related to the time husbands and wives spent in housework. The sample consisted of 1,156 structurally intact families in which the spouses were able-bodied and less than 65 years of age. Data were from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Multiple regression analysis was the statistical procedure used in this study. Variables related to wifes housework time were her employment status, family size, and husbands employment characteristics. The most im portant factor which placed a constraint upon the wifes housework hours was time spent in the labor force, while family size served as a pressure to increase housework time. Husbands allocated relatively little time to housework and a low level of explained variance in husbands housework hours was achieved. Husbands employment limited his time inputs to housework. Wifes average hourly earnings and wifes labor force hours were positively related to husbands housework hours, although the impact was quite modest. Consideration was given to the reciprocal relationship be tween husbands and wifes role performance and possible implications for family time manage ment.

Impact of Wife's Employment upon Husband's Housework

The allocation of time is recognized as a major economic consideration for families. Analysis of longitudinal data on time use offers a fruitful method for examining change and/or stability in roles of husbands and wives. In this panel study of 1156 intact families, time allocation to housework and employment by husbands and wives follows a traditional pattern, with wives spending most time in housework and husbands spending most time in employment. Cross-lag analysis is used to examine the relationship between wifes labor force time allocation and husbands housework time. Basic patterns of time allocation predominate over the 6 years, with wifes employment time having very little impact on husbands housework time. Implications for families and for social policy are discussed.

Secondary Workers' Earnings and Their Impact on Family Income Adequacy1

The purposes of this study were to investigate the contributions to family income of secondary workers in eight diverse samples and to develop a measure for assessing the impact of such earnings on the familys income adequacy. This measure, the income adequacy improvement index, considers the contributions from secondary workers in relation to adequacy of the familys income from other sources. The impact of supplemental earnings was determined to be greatest in the sample of California migrant families, both because they received substantial contributions from secondary workers and because the level of income from other sources was inadequate. For the same reasons, secondary workers in black families attained relatively high values for the income adequacy improvement index.

Wife's Earnings and Family Net Worth Position.

The major focus of this research was the influence of wifes earnings on family net worth position. Multiple regression analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Surveys dis closed that the amount of family income, not its sources, had the most important influence on 1967 and 1972 net worth for the total sample. When the sample was segmented by income, independent variables had differential impacts on both 1967 and 1972 net worth. Homeown ership status was positively associated with net worth for all groups, but in both years its impact on net worth was much greater among families in the low- and moderate-income groups. Wifes income was found to have no consistent overall impact on net worth position among the three income groups.

Employment Efforts of Family Members—Who Works and How Much1

A new measure of intensity of employment of human resources, which takes into account not only market work effort but certain constraints imposed by nonmarket obligations and disability of family members as well, was developed and utilized to assess the productive efforts of family units and their individual members. Families in small towns in the Missouri valley and in low-income areas of three metropolitan locations were included in this rural-urban comparative study. The intensity of employment of families in the small towns was found to exceed that in the urban areas due to overtime work effort on the part of husbands and a higher incidence of employment of wives and other family members. Those wives who did work in the urban areas, however, achieved higher employment intensities than the working wives in the small towns.

Interhousehold grants in peninsular Malaysia: Impact of grantors' characteristics on amount of grants given

Grants of money, goods, and services are one-way transfers between households. Tobit analysis reveals that race, household structure, household income, transportation resources (viz., vehicles owned), goods and service grants received, husbands education, and stock of small animals owned (viz., a common commodity gift in Malaysia) are characteristics of granting households that are influential in determining the amount of grants given. The incidence of granting is substantially lower among Indian than among Chinese or Malay households, although Indian households give the highest mean amount of grants. Multivariate analysis reveals that, other factors held constant, Malay households are the most generous and Indian households the least so in giving interhousehold grants. When giving of grants is conceptualized as a consumption expenditure, granting is observed to have a relationship to income similar to that of necessities rather than luxury goods.