Being a house husband may be bad for your health

Are you tired of the daily routine and planning to take up the role of a "kept man", someone who is financially supported by his spouse? Beware, according to a study, men who are not main earners in relationships could suffer stress conditions.

The findings showed that being a kept man may be dangerous for the health and can increase the risk of suffering heart problems, chronic lung disease and stomach ulcers.

This happens because their masculinity is damaged, the researchers said.

"Men who were raised to be the main breadwinner may feel they are falling short, and may be made to feel inadequate by their peers, family members, and even their spouse and children," Deborah Carr, Professor at Boston University in the US, was quoted as saying to the Daily Mail.

"These processes of stigmatisation can take a toll on a man's sense of masculinity, self, and competence," Carr added.

The study showed that when such men are toppled from the position of breadwinner, they may also seek to regain their manliness through smoking, drinking and eating unhealthily.

"Men who do not uphold the male breadwinner role may feel like a professional failure, or may feel that they are failing their families by not providing for them economically," Carr said.

"Men who hold particularly rigid gender role expectations may also be troubled by their wives' career success and earning capacity, especially if the husband believes his wife's work activities are taking away from her home-making activities," she noted.

For the study, published in the Journal of Ageing and Heath, the team studied nearly 1,100 married couples over three decades, finding health problems in men whose wife became the main breadwinner early or late in the marriage.

Previous research has found that while women who are the main breadwinners may try harder to keep their marriage on track, their husbands are more likely to abuse them or cut back on their contribution to housework.

--IANS

rt/him/vt