Proceedings of The 11th International Conference on Research in Behavioral and Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Predictors of Husbands’ and Wives’ Time Spent in Household Labor in Kuwaiti and Qatari Families
Fahad Al-Naser, Dr. Ziarat Hossain, Sadia Shaukat, Fatima Al-Qubaisi
ABSTRACT:
This paper examined whether SES, social support, sex-role beliefs, and marital satisfaction predicted husbands’ and wives’ involvement in five areas of household labor (housework, meal preparation, laundry, shopping, and maintenance) in two-parent Kuwaiti and Qatari families. Husbands and wives from 137 Qatari and 125 Kuwaiti families participated in the study. Husbands and wives were interviewed separately to collect the data. Hierarchical regression analyses showed education and personal sex-role belief positively influenced Kuwaiti husbands’ involvement in housework, work hours positively influenced time spent shopping, and family size influenced time spent on maintenance. For Kuwaiti wives, education and income positively predicted their involvement in housework, and age and personal sex-role belief positively influenced time spent in keeping track of bills. In Qatar, marital satisfaction and cultural belief negatively, and institutional support, personal sex-role belief, and religious belief positively influenced husbands’ time spent on housework. Education predicted time spent in shopping, personal sex-role belief influenced time spent in keeping track of bills, and education, work hours, and family support influenced time spent in maintenance. Work hours negatively influenced Qatari wives’ involvement in meal preparation, marital satisfaction and institutional support positively influenced time spent in shopping, and age and work hours positively and income and institutional support negatively influenced their involvement in maintenance. Findings are discussed with respect to changing contexts of sex roles in contemporary Arab societies.
keywords:Husbands and wives; Household Labor; Sex-Roles, Kuwait, Qatar