Study Reveals the Secret to A Better Relationship and Sex Life

August 24, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

CHICAGO – The secret to better sex and a stronger relationship between heterosexual couples is the equal sharing of child-rearing responsibilities, according to a new study from Georgia State University.

The data from a study of 487 couples was presented Aug. 23 at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago. Data was compiled from responses in the 2006 Marital Relationship Study, a survey among heterosexual couples, EurekaAlert noted. The 487 couples in the study were selected at random and included low-to-moderate income couples who had children living with them and where the woman was under 45 years, the BBC said.

The researchers said equal distribution of child care between a mother and father was the key to a more satisfying relationship for both men and women. Daniel L. Carlson, the lead researcher, said he and his team of graduate students were interested in further researching what it is “about sharing that couples view so positively.”

According to the research, when fathers are more invested in the child-rearing process, there were negative effects on the quality of the couples' relationships.

However, when men handled the majority of the child-rearing, their female partners “exhibited the highest overall satisfaction with their sex lives, but men demonstrated the lowest overall satisfaction with their sex lives,” Science Daily reported. While under that scenario, men may have reported less sexual satisfaction, Carlson noted being an engaged father was important to those men.

“If it weren't, we wouldn't see such a high level of satisfaction. It suggests that father engagement and sharing child care with one's partner is important to both sexes,” he said.

However, when women handled the bulk of child-care duties, satisfaction levels drastically fell on both sides, the researchers found. Carlson said the mother-dominated child-care scenario was the only real problematic situation when it came to satisfactory relationships with their spouses.

“The important point to be made is that when we're looking at child care, the difference that we find is really between arrangements where the mother is largely responsible for child care and everything else,’ Carlson told Science Daily.

The study examined several tasks associated with child care, but only one area of physical tasks, meaning playing of sports and games, was included. Bathing and feeding of a child, which are tasks typically handled by a female caregiver, were not included, Carlson said.

The research did not include data from same-sex couples who are rearing children.