共識與歧見：夫妻配對研究的重要性

Consensus or Discrepancy? The Importance of Conjugal Pair as Unit of Study

本文試圖檢討夫妻配對樣本的重要性，由分析516對夫妻在不同層次問題的答案岐異程度，討論台灣家庭研究是否需要夫妻配對資料這個最根本的問題，並檢視支撐量化調查的部份預設。研究結論包括：一，妻子與丈夫對於家庭客觀事實的回答雖高度一致、卻非完全相同，過往認為不論誰回答都會獲得相同答案的假定需要斟酌。二，透過受訪者蒐集配偶教育程度等資訊，雖有高可信度，卻也有風險。三，丈夫與妻子對性別角色態度看法的共識度偏低，研究觀念岐異如何影響婚姻關係是可努力的方向。四，以不具夫妻關係的男性和女性做為家庭研究單位，無法完全取代配對資料。五，不論是家務分工或家庭決策，夫妻答案都存在岐見，且不一致程度隨題目性質不同而異，仰賴一人陳述的家庭研究，無可避免存在偏誤。本文也應用歧異觀點於夫妻關係研究，結果指出夫妻價值觀差異越大，越傾向不滿意家庭重大事項決策方式。總之，夫妻態度與認知歧異是台灣家庭普遍特徵之一，對台灣社會來說，考察夫妻配對研究有理論與實務的必要。

The question of whether to use conjugal pairs in family studies is necessary in Taiwan is examined. According to 516 randomly selected couples in the 1994 island-wide study entitled ' The Economic Development and Female's Family Status: Family Structure, Female's Employment, and Family Power Structure in Taiwan', responses to three topics-factual data of the family background, sex-role attitudes, household division of labor and the most important family decision item-were analyzed to determine the degree of consensus/discrepancy between spouses. Results show that the greatest degree of discrepancy was for sex-role attitudes and the least for factual family data. The discrepancy of family factual information between spouses pointed out that the common practice of using one spouse's answer in gathering family demographic data has the risk of data validity. Findings regarding household division of labor and family decision-making show that discrepant answers exist in all items and vary according to different items raised. The lower level of spousal consensus regarding sex-role attitudes was further analyzed. It was shown that couples' different attitudes significantly affect the satisfaction level toward family decision-making. The findings indicate that although the amount of consensus among couples is generally greater than that of discrepancy, bias still exists if only answers from one spouse are relied, especially regarding family values and attitudes. Since conjugal discrepancy has become a feature of Taiwanese families, it is suggested that future family studies make greater efforts to include responses from both spouses when studying the marital interaction in Taiwan.