Men have less stress when wives work more.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

It is not enough for couples to relax together for their stress levels to fall at the end of the day: men find it easier to chill if their wives remain busy, while women prefer hands-on help, as their stress levels improve if their husbands chip in with housework, contends a study by the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

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The results paint a pessimistic picture of marriage, relates lead author Darby Saxbe, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology. "Your biological adaptation to stress looks healthier when your partner has to suffer the consequences--more housework for husbands, less leisure for wives."

For both partners, doing more housework kept stress hormones--or cortisol levels, which can affect sleep, weight gain, burnout, and immune resistance--higher at the end of the day. In other words, doing chores seems to limit a spouse's ability to recover from a day of...