tasks; individuals' ratings across all of the child-related task items showed participants

reported fathers doing more for 8% of the items, mothers doing more for 62% of the

items, and equal sharing of child-related tasks for 30% of the items. It appears fathers'

relative lack of involvement may lead to less positive marital outcomes, as has been

established in previous research involving mothers (C. P. Cowan & Cowan, 1988; Cowan

& Cowan, 2000; Hackel & Ruble, 1992; Ruble et al., 1988). It may also be that less

happy marriages lead fathers to participate less in caring for their child, as has been a

more typical finding for fathers reported in the existing research (Belsky & Kelly, 1994;

Paley et al., 2005; Shapiro, 2005; Van Egeren, 2004).

 Interestingly, child-related task differentiation was identified as a significant

predictor of marital disaffection in the regression analysis while violated expectations

were not. (Violated expectations were correlated with disaffection, however.) Numerous

other studies have found violated expectations to be more strongly associated with

marital dissatisfaction than the couples' actual division of labor (Cowan & Cowan, 2000;

Goldberg & Perry-Jenkins, 2004; Hackel & Ruble, 1992; Kalmuss et al., 1992; Pancer &

Pratt, 2000; Ruble et al., 1988). This difference may be due to the marital outcome

measure used in the present study, which assessed disaffection rather than dissatisfaction.

Marital disaffection is a gradual process involving the deterioration of caring and

attachment in a relationship, perhaps through the accumulation of various

disappointments and conflicts (Kayser, 1996). While violated expectations may signify a

disappointment in the marriage, these disappointments are only starting to accrue during

the first year after the birth of the couple's child. Although violated expectations may be