Sexual differentiation in the relationships of spouses at different stages of the life cycle of the family
Many practical problems in the field of family-marriage relations can be psychologically considered as different aspects of the problem of satisfaction with marriage. Despite the abundance of work in this field, the question of the determinants of satisfaction with marriage has not been adequately studied.
The main content of our work is the justification of the possibility and necessity of introducing into the study the satisfaction with the marriage of a variable of a new type - a complex indicator, called "sex differentiation in the relationships of spouses".By sex-differentiation, we mean the degree of rigidity( or specialization) in the distribution of family roles.(This term is sometimes used in studies on the psychology of yule, but in another sense - to indicate the development of male and female properties.)
Sexual differentiation can take various forms, but at the present time it most often appears in the form of "traditionalization", i.e."Return" to a less equitable( traditional) distribution of roles in the family.
As is known, the family in its development passes through various stages, some of them require substantial reconfigurations of marital relations in accordance with the new tasks facing the family. Conditionally, we call these stages "crisis" - they include, for example, the periods after the birth of the child, the beginning of the child's schooling.
The review of the literature suggests that sex-differentiation at different stages of family development is logical - in "crisis" periods, the distribution of roles becomes more traditional( when most of the homework is performed by the wife).In addition, we suggested that the corresponding changes in different ways affect the satisfaction of marriage between men and women, and this depends on the stage of development of the family.
The study was conducted using questionnaire methods that allow to identify: 1) the spouses' placement in the distribution of roles, 2) the actual distribution of roles in the family, and 3) the satisfaction with the marriage of the husband and wife. For each family, according to a special algorithm, the "sex-differentiation index" was calculated. Its value was determined by the degree of traditionality of the spouses' relations, which was estimated by 14 parameters. It can be said that a "model" of a traditional family was built and its parameters were singled out( the distribution of roles in the upbringing of children, material support, etc.).
Four groups were interviewed, in each from 20 to 30 families( total 103 families): 1) childless young families;2) families with a child under the age of 1 year;3) families with a child of 4-5 years;4) families with a child 7-9 years.
The received data on the whole confirm our assumptions that the "crisis" periods in the development of the family are represented by the 2 nd and 4 th groups. The degree of traditionality in the 2 nd and 4 th groups in the distribution of family roles is higher, and in the 1 st and 3 rd groups the relations of the spouses are more egalitarian. In the 2 nd and 4 th groups, the satisfaction rate of males is directly proportional to the value of sex role differentiation, and in women this relationship is negative. In the 1st and 3rd groups, the relationship between satisfaction and gender differentiation is less pronounced, and there is a tendency to change the direction of communication: in men, the connection tends to negative, and in women, to positive.
The results of the research allow us to talk about the qualitative peculiarity of the laws that operate at various stages of family development and to consider sex-role differentiation as the most important "mechanism" of the changes taking place in the family. Apparently, sex-differentiation acts as a way of overcoming the "crisis" periods of family development, and its effectiveness after passing through such periods falls sharply. In "crisis" periods, a more rigid distribution of roles contributes to a more efficient functioning of the family as a whole.
The data, which testify to the need for a flexible redistribution of roles in the family in accordance with the stages of its development and showing specific forms of such changes, can be used to prepare young people for marriage and in the practice of consulting work.