Health & Medicine

Fair Sharing Of Chores Helps Sex Life In Marriage

Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Nov 03, 2015 11:40 PM EST

It may come down to who does the laundry and who takes the garbage out when it comes to a healthy sex life in your marriage.

Researchers at the University of Alberta found that men who perceived their contributions to the division of labor as fair engaged in more frequent sex and both partners were more satisfied with their sex life in general.

During the study, researchers examined data from a five-year study that involved over 1,300 German couples to determine if the amount of housework the male partner was involved in could predict if the couple's sex life was influenced. They found no such connection.

The new findings contradict a 2012 study stating that men who did stereotypically "female" tasks had less sex.

"In any relationship, the amount of housework is going to mean something different based on the couple's context, based on their own expectations for what each partner should be doing, and their comparison levels of what happens with other couples they know," Dr. Matt Johnson, a family ecology professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta, said in a statement.

He found that when men perceived their contributions to the division of labor as fair, the couple engaged in more frequent sex and both male and female partners were more satisfied with their sex life.

"Rather than avoiding chores in the hopes of having more sex, as prior research would imply, men are likely to experience more frequent and satisfying passion for both partners between the sheets when they simply do their fair share," he said.

The study is published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

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