A quota sample of 158 complete nuclear families and 27 aged couples in Socialist Republic of Croatia (Yugoslavia) were interviewed regarding marital division of labor and power in various family functioning areas. The units of measure (tasks and decisions) were combined into a composite measure in order to derive the pattern of marital role relationship at the level of each area as well as of the family as a whole. In addition, a combination of five indicators (age of husband, age of wife, size of the family, duration of marriage, length of being in the particular stage) provided a basis for ex post determination of stages of the peasant farm family life cycle. Cross-sectional analysis showed that there is a trend towards work role specialization. The farm wife has working autonomy in the barnyard area over the entire family life cycle. At the beginning of the cycle she is dominant in the household area, but later on her work engagement diminishes while that of her husband increases. The farm husband has autonomy in the farm area, which is greater in the later than in the earlier stages of the cycle. He has almost no participation in the barnyard area, while in the household area his work participation increases over the cycle. Sharing is little practiced in task performance. On the other hand, as the family group grows older, the peasant farmer is gaining in power in both barnyard and household areas, while being autonomous in reaching farm decisions over the whole family life cycle. Wife's autonomy is in general of a low rate in farm decision making, as well as in reaching decisions relative to household and barnyard. The distribution of marital interaction patterns obtained on the level of the family as a whole shows that the older the family, the more autocratic division of labor and the less democratic power structure. These tendencies are not linear, however: certain oscillations are observed at the school-age and adolescent stages in the peasant farm family life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]