賢妻忙操持 丈夫更放鬆

It is the news most women today do not want to hear - their husbands relax best when their wives are doing the chores。

Researchers came to the conclusion after spending two years studying 30 couples in Los Angeles testing their stress levels during the week and at the weekend。

Unsurprisingly they found wives relax when their husbands are helping out with the washing, cooking and cleaning, but men are most at ease when they have their feet up and their other halves are on domestic duty。

The study, published in the current issue in the Journal of Family Psychology, also found wives generally spend more of their 'free' time at home doing housework, while their other halves spend more time indulging in their own hobbies。

It confirms the traditional stereotype that women work harder for the household than men - often doing twice as much housework as their husbands。

Earlier this month researchers from the University of South Florida found that men react aggressively if they feel their masculinity is being threatened。

After doing tasks traditionally associated with women, like cleaning or housework, men will deliberately behave in a more macho way to restore their self-esteem, they found。

The Center for the Everyday Lives of Families at the University of California in Los Angeles conducted this latest research between 2004 and 2006.

They surveyed dual-earning couples in their early 40s who had been married for about 13 years。

They all had at least one child aged between eight and 10, many with three。

Their saliva was tested and researchers tracked their activities at 10 minute intervals on two weekdays and two weekend days to measure levels of stress hormone cortisol。

They recorded more than 5,500 unique entries about a couples' activities, classifying them in 13 different categories, and found men had lower stress levels when they had free time and their wives were doing household chores。

The hormone can affect sleep, weight and immune resistance if it is too high。

Anthropologist Elinor Ochs told USA Today: 'What we did was videotape from morning to night. We looked at where family members were every 10 minutes — who was with them and what they were doing. We did intensive interviews about their health and well being.'

She said previous research showed men tend to spend time alone after work to wind down from the day, whilst women tend to focus on childcare and then housework when they are alone。

Lead author Darby Saxbe said men might find it quite rejuvenating relaxing when they know someone else is doing the work。下面這條消息女人們可能不願意聽到：在她們忙於各種家務瑣事時，丈夫正享受着最放鬆的一刻。

研究人員花費兩年時間，研究了30對生活在洛杉磯的夫婦，檢測他們周內和週末的壓力水平，然後得出以上結論的。

他們發現，當丈夫幫忙洗衣、做飯、打掃衛生時，妻子會感到輕鬆，這倒是很正常的現象，但在妻子忙東忙西，丈夫什麼也不做時，是男性最放鬆的時候。

刊登在最新一期的《家庭心理》雜誌上的這篇文章稱，一般情況下做妻子的會把空閒時間用來做家務，而她們的另一半則沉迷於自己的業餘愛好中。

這篇文章肯定了女性爲達到傳統意義上的賢妻良母形象所付出的努力——她們要比自己的丈夫多花一倍的時間處理家務。

本月早些時候，美國南佛羅里達大學的研究人員發現，當男性感到自己作爲一家之主的地位受到威脅時，反應會十分激烈。

研究人員發現，男性在做完諸如清潔之類的家務事後——通常人們認爲這是女人的活計——他們會不經意的耍起大爺派頭以重塑自己的男性尊嚴。

加利福尼亞大學的家庭生活事務研究中心在2004-2006年間展開了這項最新的調查。

他們調查的對象爲夫妻均40出頭，婚齡約爲13年的雙收入家庭。

這些家庭至少育有一個孩子，大部分育有三個子女，年齡在8-10歲間。

研究人員每週會安排四天(工作日兩天和週末兩天)採集參與調查的夫婦的唾液樣本——唾液中含有反應身體壓力水平的皮質醇荷爾蒙，採集過程每隔十分鐘進行一次。

調查過程中研究人員共記錄下5500件發生在這些夫婦日常生活中的特別事件，並把它們統歸爲13個類別。他們發現當男性空閒而他們的妻子在做家務時，他們體內的皮質醇荷爾蒙最低。

如果人體內這種荷爾蒙含量過高的話，會影響人的睡眠質量、體重以及免疫力。

人類學家艾林諾爾•歐奇斯在接受《今日美國》採訪時說：“我們對實驗過程進行了全場錄像。每隔十分鐘我們就會查看這些夫妻在哪，他們和誰在一起，他們在做什麼。我們對他們的身體及健康狀況進行了高密度的觀測。”

艾林諾爾•歐奇斯稱，過去的研究顯示男性在經過一整天的工作後習慣獨自一人放鬆放鬆， 而女性則會照顧孩子，處理家務。

這項研究的負責人達爾比•薩卡斯比稱，當有人處理家務時，男性會覺得特別的輕鬆愜意。