A Cross-Cultural Study of Expressive and Instrumental Role Complementarity in the Family

Abstract

Based on a representative cross-cultural sample of 186 societies, this research sought to extend an earlier investigation of specialization of the instrumental role, by sex, to a similar study of the expressive role in the family. A further aim of this research was the inspection of the Parsons and Bales proposition of complementarity of expressive and instrumental specialization. The results indicated that while women were strongly committed to expressive activities during the infancy of their children, the intensity of this commitment decreased substantially in early childhood. Males, while relatively less involved in expressive activities, still assumed a substantial portion of the expressive functions of the family, and maintained the level of this commitment throughout the infancy and early childhood of their offspring. A moderate level of male-female expressive complementarity was found in the infant caregiving activities; beyond infancy, however, the complementary relationship disappeared completely. Finally, no evidence was found to support a principle of complementary expressive-instrumental specialization in the family.