Marriages are much more likely to last the course if husbands muck in with the chores and the housework. So says one of the latest surveys to be published.

Researchers from the London School of Economics tracked 3,500 married couples who had their first child during one week in 1970 – a time when most women with young children stayed at home.

When the children were five years old, the women were asked about how much their husbands helped around the house. Just over half did nothing – or only assisted with one task.

A quarter carried out two tasks, and the remaining quarter did three or four, the journal Feminist Economics reported earlier this month.

About seven per cent of the couples had divorced by the time the child was ten, rising to 20 per cent by the youngster's 16th birthday.

When the two pieces of information were crunched together, it became clear that the more a man helped out, the more stable was his marriage. It showed that although divorce became more common when the mother went out to work, this increase could be kept to a minimum by the father pulling his weight around the house.

As with many of these surveys, this has something of the “blindingly obvious” about it: if a husband helps with the domestic chores and the care of the children, it means he is spending more time with his family than a man who does neither. And if you spend more time with your family, it will create a stronger unit.

If a man is happy to help with the cooking, washing up and hovering, it takes pressure off his wife – who, these days, is likely to go out to work as well – so she is less frazzled than she might otherwise be and, as a result, less resentful. It also means a husband has respect and concern for his wife’s responsibilities (or vice versa, of course, if a husband is the main home-maker and child-carer).

Sharing even the most mundane tasks, such as hanging the washing, doing the garden or taking the kids to the park, strengthens the bond between couples too. It creates a sense of being “in it together”. When so many people lead busy lives, with demanding careers, cooking a meal together might be the only time in the day when a couple have the chance to chat.

In most good marriages, couples also enjoy shared interests. Singing in a choir together or keeping an allotment can give mutual as well as individual satisfaction. Shared leisure pursuits also provide topics of conversation and a joint sense of purpose.

Whilst it’s healthy for couples to do things separately, a lack of togetherness is a recipe for growing apart.

Of course, if your relationship is in a truly parlous state, doing things together might make it worse – leading to a deeper sense of irritation with the other person. But, generally, even rocky marriages will improve if couples spend time in each other’s company, sharing both the drudgery and the joy.