Religious Orientation and Sex-Role Attitudes: The Apportionment of Paid Employment Childcare and Household Tasks within the Context of Marriage

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between intrinsic/extrinsic religious orientation and sex-role attitudes within the context of marriage. Three hundred and ten students from urban Catholic high schools participated in the study. Sex-role attitudes were measured using Likert-type scales reflecting judgment on apportionment of time between spouses for paid employment, childcare, and housework. Also, Likert-type scales reflected perceived comfort, perceived marriage satisfaction, and divorce probability for a husband and wife represented in an egalitarian and a traditional sex-segregated scenario. Sex-role attitude scores were examined by categorizing students according to gender and high/low intrinsic and extrinsic groups. Males were found to be more traditional than females in terms of a wife' paid employment and in terms of responsibility for childcare. Extrinsic orientation did interact with gender of subject on perceptions about the husband's marriage satisfaction. Overall, students preferred the egalitarian type of marriage over the traditional type while continuing to evidence traditional attitudes in terms of employment.