Abstract
Recent studies have established an empirical relationship between the husband's level of emotional involvement and various indices of intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning within the family context. Despite the risks attendant to families of emotionally withdrawn husbands, these husbands may be less likely to participate in research. The present study explored this hypothesis. A three-step recruitment procedure based on random sampling techniques, which focused on first securing the interest of wives, was used to recruit couples for a multimethod study on marriage. If a husband did not join his wife in the study, the wife was asked to complete a set of questionnaires. The same set of questionnaires was completed by wives whose husbands agreed to participate with them. In comparison to participant husbands, nonparticipant husbands were rated by their wives as being less emotionally involved in their marriages (as measured by the husband's expressiveness/responsiveness). This effect did not generalize to the husband's instrumental involvement in the marriage (i.e., housework participation) or to other areas of distress, nor did it reflect differences in the wife's own expectations for emotional involvement. The possible underrepresentation of emotionally withdrawn husbands in research may limit our ability to study, as well as help, this at-risk population.
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