Household Labor and Subjective Well-being of Wives and Husbands Among Korean Weekend Couples

Yun-Suk Lee , University of Seoul

Some wives and husbands maintain separate residences. This form of couples is understood as manifestation of major transition in the gender arrangement of work and family. Using a representative sample of “weekend couples,” where wives and husbands live separately in Korea, this study 1) compared weekend and typical couples in time spent on housework and 2) examined whether time on housework is associated with life satisfaction. I found that while females in weekend couples use much less time on household chores compared to females in typical couples, males in weekend couples assign more time to housework compared to their counterparts. Additionally, I found that for women in both weekend and typical couples, more household tasks are related to lower levels of general satisfaction. The results suggested that maintaining separate residences may balance time use patterns between two partners and so have important implications for subjective well-being of weekend couples.

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 Presented in Session 77. Marital Relationships and Well-being