Family sociology or wives family sociology? A cross-cultural examination of decision-making.

The majority of family studies have been based on responses obtained from wives only on the untested assumption that mens and womens responses would be quite similar. Husbands and wives responses about decision-making in two cultures obtained using two different sampling techniques were compared in this study. The two cultures differ in prevailing family ideologies family modernization and level of industrialization and societal complexity. American data were from a large Head Start Multidisciplinary Research Study conducted in Detroit. 160 cases were used in which both the husband and wife responded. Greek data were from a large study of family social class and mental illness in 1964. The information was obtained from the wife in 133 cases and from the husband in 117. In Detroit there was complete agreement between spouses on who made decisions in only 23.8% of cases and slight disagreement in 21.3%. The Greek data showed that wives reported significantly more often than husbands that wives predominated in decision- making. The results indicate that the family cannot be conceptualized as consisting of converging views precepts beliefs and values of both spouses. Family research cannot rely solely on wives assessments. Valid studies of family power structure should meet minimal methodological requirements including obtaining information from both spouses.