Who gives to whom? Testing the support gap hypothesis with naturalistic observations of couple interactions

Abstract

We examined sex differences in explicitly supportive behavior exchanges between husbands and wives using naturalistic video-recordings of everyday couple interactions inside the home. Thirty dual-earner, middle class, heterosexual couples with school-age children were recorded in their homes over 4 days. Specific instances of face-to-face explicit couple support in the video-recordings were identified, and the support role assumed by each partner (recipient vs. provider), the method of support initiation (solicitations vs. offers), and the type of support (instrumental vs. emotional) in each interaction were coded. Paired samples t tests examined sex differences in husbands' and wives' supportive behavior, and bivariate correlations tested the associations among spouses' support initiation behaviors. Findings counter prior research that has largely found a "support gap" favoring husbands as support recipients. Instead, results indicate that wives received significantly more support of an instrumental nature from husbands (than husbands did from wives), a finding driven by wives' active support-soliciting behavior. Among husbands, a tendency to be the solicitor of support was positively correlated with a tendency to offer support. Within couples, rates of offers of support by 1 spouse were correlated with offers by the partner. Naturalistic observations highlight processes that may not be detected by self-reports or laboratory data, in an ecologically valid context in which social behavior reflects the natural rhythms and pulls of everyday life. (PsycINFO Database Record