Happier sex life possible by dividing childcare reponsibilities

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A study finds that egalitarian couples—those who have children and share the parenting workload—are more satisfied by the quantity and quality of their sex lives. In addition, egalitarian couples are more satisfied with their relationship overall and experience less couple conflict.

For the study, scientists compared three different relationship dynamics: relationships where the women handled at least 60 percent of childcare responsibilities, those in which the men took responsibility for 60 percent of childcare duties, and relationships in which the couple split child-rearing duties equally or at least 40 to 60 percent, explains the Examiner.

According to Health Day, child-rearing duties were identified by scientists as making and enforcing rules for children, monitoring and supervising, punishing and praising the children when appropriate, and playing with the children.

Overall, both the men and the women in egalitarian relationships were happier with the quality and quantity of their sex lives compared to the couples who split childcare duties unequally. In addition, these couples were generally happier with their relationships, states the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, men and women in more traditional relationships, in which the woman took on more childcare responsibilities, were equally dissatisfied with their sex lives, often describing it as wanting.

Whereas, when men did most of the child-rearing, there was a disparity between the satisfaction of women and men. In this case, women rated the quality of their sex life even higher then those in an egalitarian relationship.

However, for the men, whose wives took care of the kids less, there was a problem with the quality of their sex lives, rather than the amount of sex they were getting from the relationship.

"We don't really know exactly what is behind this," acknowledged Professor Daniel Carlson, lead author of the study. He attempted to explain the phenomenon:

"But it could be that a relationship suffers when one person feels overburdened, overworked, or overtired. Or it could be that a certain degree of dissatisfaction with having to do all the work, while the other isn't doing any of it, undermines the bond between couples. And that can carry over to the bedroom."

The findings of the study were recently presented on Aug. 23 at the 110^th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association by sociologists from Georgia State University (GSU), reports the Examiner.

For the study, scientists analyzed data from 487 couple who answered the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey comparing it to a 2013 study published in the American Sociological Review, informs the Los Angeles Times.

Though conducted in a much later time frame, the 2013 study based their conclusions off data collected between 1992- 94, revealing stark differences in the dynamics of a couple with children.