Wives’ Work Hours and Marital Dissolution: Differential Effects across Marital Duration

Abstract

In this article, I ask: Does the effect of wives' work hours on marital dissolution change across marital duration? Using the first two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), I find only weak evidence that wives' work hours are associated with higher marital dissolution. The effect, however, is more positive and significant among long-term marriages. In addition, this study also tests whether couples' gender ideology and marital interaction explain this differential effect of wives' work hours. The results suggest that couples' gender ideology does not account for this differential effect of wives' work hours. The more positive effect among long-term marriages, however, is reduced to insignificance as soon as a marital interaction measure is introduced into the model. This study contributes to broader research in two ways. Despite the weak effect of wives' work hours on marital dissolution, the buffering effect of marital duration challenges the prior assumption that the effect of wives' work hours is invariant across marital duration. Second, this study suggests that the more positive effect of wives' work hours on marital dissolution among long-term marriages can be attributed to couples' marital interaction in these marriages becoming more important in mediating the effect of wives' work hours. Given these results, this study suggests that future research should consider the buffering effect of marital duration in understanding the determinants of marital dissolution.

Joint lifestyles and the risk of union dissolution: Differences between marriage and cohabitation

“…Therefore, one would expect that the more couples operate jointly in their leisure time, the lower their risk of union dissolution. Previous studies support this expectation (e.g., Booth et al 1984;Hill 1988;Gager and Sanchez 2003;Yucel 2012). Research is, however, sparse and has focused exclusively on marriage, thereby disregarding cohabiting couples.…”

“…Previous studies analyzed data from earlier divorced respondents who reported lifestyles retrospectively (e.g., Poortman 2005), which suffers from problems of recall, or predicted proxies of divorce such as "discussing divorce" instead of its occurrence (e.g., Booth et al 1984). Studies that combined a prospective measure of lifestyles with the observed event of divorce often merely operationalized joint lifestyles as the amount of time spent together (Gager and Sanchez 2003;Presser 2000;Terling-Watt 2001;Yucel 2012). Such a measure not only provides little insight into the nature of this time, but is also obviously sensitive to the amount of leisure time in general (Kalmijn and Bernasco 2001).…”

An Examination of Work-Life Balance, Listening Satisfaction, and Relationship Dissolution Among Marital and Cohabiting Couples

“…The dissolution of marital and cohabiting relationships can be explained by perceptions of work-life balance in a family household. Several correlational studies have noted that when work hours exceed the number of hours devoted to one's partner, it can escalate the conflict and lead to feelings of relational dissolution in marital and cohabiting relationships (Spitze & South, 1985;Voydanoff, 1998;Yucel, 2012). In particular, a longitudinal study has found that wives' excessive work hours positively correlate with marital dissolution.…”

“…In particular, a longitudinal study has found that wives' excessive work hours positively correlate with marital dissolution. However, this study has not controlled for any demographic variables, and examined only marital couples (Yucel, 2012). A lack of work-life balance highlights the inability to manage energy and time effectively, due to partners' work schedules in order to stabilize their long-term relationships (Tausig & Fenwick, 2001).…”

“…In turn, partners who listen effectively to their partners' concerns at work are also more satisfied with their relationship, which can help them to engage in quality interactions about their work-life balance issues (Doohan, 2007). However, partners who report suffering from a work-life imbalance experience work stress and their relationship becomes less satisfying overtime, which leads to relationship dissolution (Debrot, Siegler, Klumb, & Schoebi, 2018;Yucel, 2012). When relational partners perceive that their partner is listening to them to understand their situation, they are more likely to experience "we-ness" and relationship satisfaction, which may reduce the likelihood of relationship dissolution (Reid, Dalton, Laderoute, Doell, & Nguyen, 2006;Ahmad & Reid, 2008).…”