Ethics of Care: Supporting and Constraining Leisure-Time Physical Activity in Early Marriage

Abstract

We used a qualitative descriptive study to explore interrelationships between ethics of care and the leisure-time physical activities (LTPAs) of newlywed women and men. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 women and 14 male partners as they entered marriage, and we repeated interviews one year later. Our thematic analysis of interviews revealed that emotional and instrumental supports influenced LTPAs directly by fostering both shared LTPA and individual LTPA and by providing childcare and meals, as well as indirectly through role obligations expected to benefit couples’ marriages. Interdependent aspects of spousal caring occurred when a partner’s support of a mate’s LTPA simultaneously constrained the partner’s own LTPA. Ethics-of-care-related actions promoted marital connections through LTPA, supported LTPAs, and nurtured marriages, but they also constrained spouses’ LTPAs, with women’s and men’s LTPAs affected similarly. Ethics of care was important in influencing newlywed couples’ LTPA decisions, behaviors, and experiences.

Keywords:

• ethic of care
• leisure
• marriage
• physical activity
• qualitative

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the informants for their cooperation in participating in this project. They also thank the Co-editor and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful and instructive critiques of earlier versions of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U. S. National Institutes of Health under Grant number ROI DK 42787-0682.