Conjugal Roles and Social Networks in Japanese Families

Abstract

In a study on family and social networks, Elizabeth Bott argued that conjugal role performance is primarily a function of the configuration of friends and relatives associated with each spouse. For over three decades, this relationship has been repeatedly tested with unresolved findings due, in part, to different research techniques and the ambiguity in Bott’s theory itself. To cast light on this intriguing issue, we transported Bott’s ideas to Japan and applied them to a sample of 40 husbands and wives. Strong support was found for Bott’s core hypothesis: Japanese couples who are each embedded in a high-density social network have segregated role relations; couples who are embedded in a low-density network have joint role relations. We then offer a causal model of Bott’s theory to help illuminate what we see as a trend in role sharing among Japanese couples.