The Effects of Family Relationships, Household Division, and Child Care on Marital Conflict

Background and Purpose: Since the 1970s, various social problems have risen to the surface in Korean society. This is explained by the dynamic pathology of urbanization, modernization and industrialization, the after-effects of rapid economic growth, which has not only led to the collapse of traditional family values of filial piety, but also to a crisis in family health, including runaways and divorce, and the breakdown of families due to marital conflict, which has led to national and social problems. Therefore, this study focuses on the micro equality in the family, which has changed in line with modern society, and examines the impact of family relationships, division of household chores, and childcare roles on marital conflict, and explores the gap between perceptions and reality by analyzing how spouses' perceived family relationships, division of household chores, and childcare roles affect marital conflict. For this purpose, the research questions are ‘What are the effects of family relationships, division of labor, and childcare on marital conflict, and what are the differences in husbands' and wives' perceived mutual evaluations?

Methods: This study utilized data from the “2024 Survey on Housework, Child Care, Gender Equality Among Married Couples,” conducted with a sample of 1,244 individuals aged 30 to 60. The survey was carried out from March 11 to March 18, 2024, through an online platform using convenience quota sampling. The hierarchical regression analysis was carried out. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board to ensure compliance with research ethics.

Results: The results of this study are that men and women have different perceptions of micro-gender equality, which leads to different evaluations of childcare. The first, for both husbands and wives, children relation, spouse relation, household division reduced marital conflict, while child care was not significant. The second, differences in perceptions between husbands and wives were found among micro-level gender equality factors. In the wife model, husbands' involvement in childcare increased marital conflict. In fact, husbands and wives have been reported to have negative interpretations of each other and low perspective taking, with husbands reporting increased marital conflict based on their daily marital compatibility and wives reporting increased marital conflict based on their husbands' problematic behavior. Therefore, the approach to mitigating marital conflict should acknowledge the discrepancy in perceptions between couples and take measures to address the dysfunction in the family system through commitment to each other as mentioned in the investment model

Conclusions and Implications: The implication of this study is that husbands' direct care of children and their wives' perception of this care is a major source of stress in marital conflict, and that in order to overcome family crises around caregiving, there needs to be institutional arrangements that go beyond marital commitment. For example, in South Korea, husbands' parental leave remains low in private companies, except for public institutions, and husbands are marginalized in childcare policies such as shortened working hours during the parental period. This will require a culture where fathers can freely access parental leave in the labor market.