Family development and the spouses’ role behavior in Iran

The recent rise in age at marriage, reduction in fertility and increase in the life span of men and women make Iran an interesting place to study different aspects of family development (i.e. children’s birth, growth and departure from the parental home). Using the 2009 Time Use Survey, representing urban areas of Iran, this paper shows socio-economic differences in the timing of major family development stages and the spouses’ role behaviour as they go through successive stages. The results show that (1) the timing and the associated role behaivour of these stages vary by the level of education for both husbands and wives, (2) the role behavior (specially occupational, parental and domestic roles) greatly varies between husbands and wives and (3) both the timing and the role behavior trivially vary by the family’s economic status. These results not only contribute to the knowledge of family dynamics in Iran, but also help programme planning aimed at assisting people as they go through their life course. Future studies are needed to describe the spouses’ role expectations at each family development stage and their important correlates to provide a better understanding about gender role structures within family.