Family and Socialization Processes: Parental Perception and Evaluation of Their Children's Household Labor

This paper presents the results of a research Project developed to analyze and diagnose family co-responsibility in Spain. The basic goal of the research was to broaden our knowledge about how families negotiate the division of household labour and also to understand how the processes involved in such negotiation hinder or facilitate changes in,gender roles. In this paper, we report our analysis and conclusions in relation to the implicit model implemented by parents in the socialization of shared family responsibility. The data used for the analysis were taken from a set of semi-structured interviews carried out in a focus group context with Spanish parents. The analysis shows how the traditional, idealized model of co-responsibility has been substituted by a more individualistic one. However, this new model appears to give rise to some problems and conflicts.