How do wives and husbands feel toward assisting their diabetic spouse?

Abstract

An analysis of interview data for 10 spouses of diabetics revealed two categories of thoughts held by spouses who were assisting their diabetic partner. One category was“Wives whose motivation to assist did not intensify because they felt their diabetic husbands were not motivated.”These women did not feel their diabetic husbands were motivated to eat properly or follow their treatment, and so could not become motivated themselves. The fact that they were assisting despite this feeling probably produced their hesitation. The background for this thinking was assumed to include the influence of gender role awareness in which assistance with their husband’s meals was an unavoidable part of their housework. In the category of“Husbands whose motivation to help did not intensify because of their gender roles and optimism toward wives’symptoms,”husbands with diabetic wives felt that as the spouse they should naturally assist their wives, but were unable to intensify their desire to assist because of the gender role of husbands and because their wives did not have any noticeable disorder. In such cases the husbands’ awareness of gender roles was that cooking was the woman’s role and that the husband should not do it.