This study examined the influence of husbands' absence on wives' psychological stress. Women whose husbands transferred with (N=180) or without (N=229) being accompanied by their families, completed questionnaires about stress reaction, childcare anxiety, children's problem behaviors, parent-child communication and fathers' cooperation with child-care. ANOVA analysis revealed that women who did not accompany their husbands (tanshin-funin) reported more stress reactions such as,“feeling lonely”,“anxiety” and “poor physical condition” than did women who accompanied their husbands (taido-funin). Results of path analysis indicated that (1) tanshin-funin wives' child-care anxiety accounted for twice as much variance in their stress reaction, compared with taido-funin wives', and (2) tanshin-funin children's early delinquent behaviors influenced their mothers' child-care anxiety and stress. In addition, tanshin-funin wives recognized that their spouses' father/husband role performance affected children's problem behavior and women's stress. These data suggest that physical husband/father absence does not have so much of a direct negative effect on their families' well-being, but physical absence plus functional absence lead to more child's problem behavior, and wives' child-care anxiety or negative stress.