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Based on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and Spillover-Crossover Model (SCM), this study examined the mediating role of family-to-work enrichment (FWE) and family-work conflict (FWC) in the relationship between communication quality and life satisfaction among members of dual-earner couples. Drawing on data from 149 Romanian couples, we employed structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to test the proposed model. We explored the mediating role of FWC and FWE between communication quality and life satisfaction for both partners. Results indicate that FWE mediates the relationship between communication and life satisfaction for men (spillover), and FWC mediates the relationship between communication and life satisfaction for each partner (spillover). Also, the FWC of men mediates the relationship between women's communication quality and life satisfaction (crossover). These findings indicate that the positive effects of women's communication quality expand beyond the family life of individuals, showing an association with increased life satisfaction of the spouses through FWC., Author(s): Alina Matei [sup.1] , Delia Vîrga [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.14004.31, 0000 0001 2182 0073, Department of Psychology, West University of Timiòoara, , Bv. Vasile Parvan, no. 4, 300223, [...]

This study identifies family profiles based on the level of life satisfaction (LS) in mothers, fathers and adolescents, and variables related to their family, food, and work life. The sample was composed of 303 families of dual-earner parents (mothers' mean age = 40.9 years, SD = 7.4, fathers' mean age = 43.2 years, SD = 7.2) and one of their children aged between 10 and 17 years (mean age 13.3, SD = 2.4, 51.5% female). A Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify five family profiles. Profiles differed in LS, satisfaction with family life (SWFaL), satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL), family functioning, both parents' work-life balance and their perception of the financial situation of the household. Balanced and imbalanced families in terms of LS differed in the three family members' LS and SWFaL, mothers' and children' SWFoL and family functioning, and both parents' perception of financial situation. These results contribute to understanding the heterogeneity of life satisfaction dynamics between and within dual-earner families., Author(s): Berta Schnettler [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] [sup.4] , Klaus G. Grunert [sup.5] [sup.6] , Ligia Orellana [sup.2] [sup.4] , Horacio Miranda [sup.1] , Germán Lobos [sup.3] [sup.7] , Edgardo Miranda-Zapata [...]

Work engagement is a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Work engaged individuals not only function better at work, but also transfer these benefits to home - research has shown that work engagement crosses over between marital partners. In previous studies on crossover, this phenomenon was evidenced only by significant correlation between self-reports of partners' work engagement, while measures of dissimilarity between partners were completely ignored. However, work engagement dissimilarity - with one partner being highly enthusiastic and immersed in his/her work and the other one lowly - could be related to some aspects of both partners' well-being and might improve its prediction. Hence, the goal of this study was to examine work engagement dissimilarity within dual-earning couples. In addition to self-report measures, we collected partners' ratings of work engagement and its subdimensions as well. The data collected on 178 dual-working Croatian couples showed significant correlation of overall work engagement, vigor, dedication and absorption between various pairs of self- and other-ratings measures (partners' self-ratings; self-ratings and partner's ratings; and partner's self-ratings and his/her ratings of work engagement of the partner). Moreover, difference in self-ratings and ratings of partner's work engagement showed negative correlation with life satisfaction of both partners, suggesting that work engagement dissimilarity has a potential to be related to some aspects of partners' well-being., Author(s): Masa Tonkovic Grabovac[sup.1] , Svjetlana Salkicevic[sup.1] , Ajana Low Stanic[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Ivana Lucica 3, 10000, [...]

Using data from the first seven waves of the Health and Retirement Study (1992 to 2004), the authors examined the extent to which joint retirement expectations were realized, the role of couple-level agreement in facilitating joint retirement, whether husbands' or wives' expectations were more likely to be realized in cases of disagreement, and factors associated with the realization of expectations. The results indicate that couples expecting joint retirement were over three times more likely to retire jointly than couples in which neither spouse expected to do so. However, the probability of joint retirement did not differ between couples in which both spouses expected to retire jointly and those in which only one spouse expected to do so. Wives' and husbands' expectations were equally strong predictors of joint retirement, and retirement age, health, spouses' relative earnings, and discussions of retirement were related to the likelihood of realizing joint retirement expectations. Keywords: retirement; joint retirement; retirement expectations; gender

In this study, the authors examined affective experiences of dual-earner couples. More specifically, the authors explored how momentary moods can spill over between work and family and cross over from one spouse to another. Fifty couples used their cell phones to provide reports of their momentary moods over 8 consecutive days. Results show significant spillover and crossover effects for both positive and negative moods. Work orientation moderated negative mood spillover from work to home, and the presence of children in the family decreased negative mood crossover between spouses. Crossover was observed when spouses were physically together and when the time interval between the spouses' reports was short. With this study, the authors contribute to the work and family research by examining the nature of mood transfers among dual-earner couples, including the direction, valence, and moderators of these transfers across work and family domains. The authors also contribute to the event sampling methodology by introducing a new method of using cell phones to collect momentary data. Keywords: mood, spillover, crossover, dual-earner couples, cell phone

The increasing entrance of women into the American workforce during the past few decades is undoubtedly one of the greatest societal changes Americans have experienced, with important effects on family structure, dynamics, and the social and psychological development of individual family members. This second part of a double issue presents research investigating but a few of the myriad effects of changes in the workforce on the family, including outcomes for children and their mothers, as well as issues of growing concern for dual-earner families. Articles in this issue focus on the identities of working mothers; outcomes of maternal employment for children, including attitudes toward work and family in young adulthood; concerns about after-school care and retirement planning within dual-earner families; and community responsiveness to working families. Keywords: working mothers; working families; work-family interaction; maternal employment; dual-earner families

Theories of 'individualization' and 'risk' have shifted attention away from the material and structural roots of inequality and sanctioned a psychologized view of class distinctions in terms of personal qualities. This article will demonstrate how the association of disadvantage with a particular form of subjectivity is operationalized and institutionalized through a contemporary focus on childrearing practices. Discourses of 'social exclusion' construct working-class families as lacking in personal skills and moral responsibility, destined to transfer disadvantage to their children in a 'cycle of deprivation'. This view underpins the current UK policy focus on parenting, characterized by state efforts to regulate and control the way children are brought up. Drawing on qualitative research with parents across a wide range of social backgrounds, this article will show how such an approach fails to recognize the socially and materially grounded nature of childrearing. KEY WORDS class / exclusion / individualization / parenting

Individuals in dual-career situations have become increasingly common all over the world. For couples dealing with multiple demands, this lifestyle often generates stresses and strains at home and at work, which can have negative consequences for organizations. Most empirical research into this lifestyle has been conducted in the United States and Britain, and very little in Australia. This particular study, based on data from an Australian sample of 65 dual-career couples, analyzed the relation between overload and work-family conflict and the moderating effects of support (supervisor, coworkers, and friends). Results confirm that overload was significantly related to work-family conflict but no moderating effects were found for support. Limitations of the study and an Organizational role in managing the work-family interface dual-career couples are discussed.

The majority of American couples with minor children are dual-earners, and research indicates that, in general the members of these families are thriving. Yet, outdated societal ideologies and practices place stressors on these families, giving rise to a need for effective treatment approaches for these stressors. A content analysis of seven major family therapy journals over approximately twenty years (1979-1999) was conducted on the applied articles related to dual-income couples. Only nine articles provided an applied focus on the topic. The article describes the content of these articles, specifically the descriptors of dual-income couples, their common problems, the benefits of the dual-income family arrangement, and suggested interventions. Many of the articles portrayed descriptions of these families that are inconsistent with empirical research; however; their emphasis on the importance of equitable division of labor and freedom from restrictive gender expectations is consistent with this research.

Despite earlier claims that women are generally more vulnerable than men to stressors, recent research on mental health indicates that sex differences in vulnerability are highly specific and depend on the type of stressor and disorder considered. My paper extends previous work on this topic by suggesting that gender variation in stress-reactivity is also contingent upon people's marital status. To illustrate the importance of marital status for differential vulnerability, my study assesses sex differences in the impact of work and family role strains on depression and alcohol use-abuse among married and unmarried employed parents who participated in the second wave of the National Survey of Households and Families (N = 2937). My analyses indicate that mothers generally are not more vulnerable than fathers, but that sex differences in parents' response to stress depend on the type of stressor and disorder involved. My analyses also reveal significant marital status contingencies in the effects of stress on mothers' compared to fathers' symptoms of distress. Finally, although married and unmarried mothers do not differ in their response to work or family stress, my analyses show that parental strain is more harmful to unmarried than married fathers. Overall, my research identifies an important, though previously overlooked, factor influencing sex differences in vulnerability and further specifies the types of stressors which are etiologically important for married and unmarried mothers and fathers. I interpret findings from the contextual approach to differential vulnerability, arguing that the circumstances in which stressors occur influence their meaning, emotional significance, and psychological impact.

On the basis of data from 2 manufacturing plants (n = 260 participants at Site 1, and n = 314 at Site 2) in the United States, the authors examined levels of organization commitment and the job involvement of single-income and dual-income couples. A questionnaire that differentiates between those variables was used as the survey instrument. The results indicated that in 1 site there was no difference in the levels of organization commitment and in job involvement between individuals in dual-income and single-income families. In another site, however, individuals from single wage earner families with children had higher levels of commitment than members of dual wage earner families. Those results may have practical implications for organizations developing programs and policies to foster favorable working conditions and organization commitment., In the United States, important social changes in recent decades have been the dramatic increase in the labor force participation of women and the corresponding rise in two-income families. As [...]

Researchers considering the impact of parental and occupational stress on depressive symptoms have used a matched pair design with appropriate covariates, along with a multilevel modeling approach. It was established that there are links between social role stress and depressive symptoms in dual-income couples. This applies to both men and women. It was not found that occupational stress is more closely related to depressive symptoms in men, or that parental stress is more closely linked to depressive symptoms in women.

Dual-earner families may be grouped into high-status, low-stress and main-secondary families. Both high-status and low-stress groups reflect absolute work condition levels of both husbands and wives, while the main-secondary group reveals differences in couples' work situations. The typology is also related to other family life characteristics such as parental monitoring of children and spousal evaluation of marriage.

Selected social-psychological processes within the family were examined as potential mediators of the relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment among career men and women in the United States. Seventy-nine men and 198 women who were professionals in psychology participated in the study. A path-analytic model was used to test two specific family variables--perceptions of equity in spousal home division of labor and perceptions of spousal social support--as potential mediators of the proposed negative relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment. Spousal social support and equity in spousal home division of labor played an important, albeit small, mediating role in the negative relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment for men and women. Contrary to expectations, gender exhibited no overall indirect effect on marital adjustment., THE STEADY INCREASE in the number of married women in professional and managerial occupations, the pursuit of higher education by women, increases in equal employment opportunities, and the tendency of [...]

Gender receives relatively little attention as a critical aspect of context, despite the general acknowledgment among psychologists that human behavior needs to be studied within the context of societal norms and practices. In this article I explain why this is the case and then, using examples from the area of dual-earner families, describe ways we can give gender its rightful contextual place in research practices. By so doing I also argue that needed transformations can take place.

The use of the Double ABCX model of family stress and adaptation reveals that higher stress leads to negative perceptions of the latest relocation. It also causes lower coping resources and well-being in wives rather than their clergy husbands. The clergy men and their wives reveal variance in well-being following relocation.

Burnout is gender-determined within a stratified social structure. This hypothesis was confirmed using data from 95 dual-income couples in Singapore. Both work and nonwork stressors were examined as predictors of burnout through T-test, path analysis and moderated multiple regression techniques. The results indicate that wives are more prone to burnout than are their spouses. In addition, husbands' burnout was determined more by work stressors, while their wives suffered from both work and nonwork burnout factors. However, while job-spouse conflict was one of the factors that affected wives' burnout, this effect was moderated by the quality of the spousal relationship. The model developed had more success in predicting burnout in wives than in their husbands.

The transmission of occupational stress between working spouses is examined. Evidence of the passing on of job stress from one spouse to the other underlines the increased health risks to either partner that result from this transmission. Data from 60 working couples is analyzed to determine the degree and direction of such transmission and the psychological mechanisms involved. Strain levels, perception of spouse's stress and the effect of one's work on the well-being of the other are specific variables. Results indicate that perceptions of spouse's jobs are accurate, supported by frequent work-related conversations between spouses. In addition, work-related stress is found to be transmitted from husbands to their wives, but no evidence exists of transmission from the latter to the former.

This article explores work-family relations from the perspective of the emotion management performed by participants in both spheres. We extend previous discussions of emotion management by considering how work and family roles vary in the types and degress of emotion management they require. We then explore the implications of this conception of work-family role variations in type and degree of emotion management for women's and men's work-family relations, paying particular attention to gender differences in work-family conflict and worrk-family role overload. The framework developed here highlights the need to examine the variability in the emotion-management requirements of social roles, and it calls for attention to workers' multiple role involvements in studies of emotion management and their effects on individuals. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This article examines the association between job role quality and psychological distress in a sample of 300 full-time employed dual-earner couples, controlling for such individual level variables as age, education, occupational prestige, and marital quality and for such couple level variables as length of marriage, parental status, and household income. The magnitude of this effect is compared for men and for women. Results indicate that job role quality is significantly negatively associated with psychological distress for women as well as for men and that the magnitude of the effect depends little, if at all, on gender, casting doubt on the widely held view that job experiences more significantly influence men's mental health states than women's. The results are discussed in the context of differentiating between sex differences and gender differences.

Clinicians are increasingly consulted by couples whose conflicts arise from or are exacerbated by a dual-career relationship. Therapy with these couples can be greatly aided when treatment is tailored to the unique needs of their relational system. A protocol for tailoring treatment based on a comprehensive, multidimensional assessment is described and illustrated with case material.

What is the relationship between the quality of men's job and partnership roles on the one hand and men's mental health on the other? This question was addressed in a random sample of 300 men, ages 25-40, in dual-earner couples. Predictions were made from both main-effects and two interaction-effects models of this relationship. More specifically, negative-spillover effects, as predicted by the role-stress model, were estimated both from work to home and home to work. Positive-spillover effects, as predicted by the role-enhancement model, were estimated from home to work and from work to home. The general finding was that the effects are additive not interactive, thus supporting the main-effects model. With respect to spillover effects, there was some support for the role-stress model, but no support for the role-enhancement model. More specifically, the relationship between job stress and psychological distress was exacerbated among men who had troubled relationships with their partners.

Latchkey children are more likely to become involved with alcohol and drugs. A better child care system is in the best interests of children whose parents work full time. Businesses should provide more child care-related benefits.

Correlates of work-home role conflict for dual-earner couples were examined. Respondents (N = 208) were an equal number of married, employed men and women with children. Data were collected in the northeastern U.S.A. through a survey which measured work-home role conflict, family climate, domestic responsibilities, and activities performed during one's free time. LISREL was used to determine if domestic responsibilities mediate the correlation between gender and work-home conflict. A regression analysis was used to determine the relative effects of domestic responsibilities and family climate on work-home conflict. Results indicate that (a) work-home role conflict is negatively related to family climate for men as well as for women, (b) gender differences in role conflict are partially attributable to gender differences in domestic responsibilities, and (c) domestic responsibilities and family climate each correlate significantly with work-home role conflict. Findings suggest that how one works hard (the conditions under which one lives) may be just as important as how hard one works (the number of tasks one performs).

A sample of 139 married couples with young children and with relatively equal status carreers (wives were university professors or businesswomen) were interviewed about work and home life. Considerable, traditional inequity in the distribution of child-care tasks and chore responsibility was noted, but women were generally satisfied with their husbands' home involvement. In the academic sample, the longer hours each spouse worked, the more child care the other performed; in the business sample, child-care involvement was largely determined by the husband's work hours, income, and education. Overall, women were more self-critical than were men about their performance in home roles, and women's role performance was rated more highly by husbands than by themselves. Women professionals' continued use of traditional sex role standards and the importance of attending to both partners' perspectives in studies of married life are discussed.

Increasing numbers of families in the United States are supported by two incomes. Families must cope with the changes this lifestyle brings. This study explored how women and men in various employment arrangements experienced and coped with stress. Data from 82 couples, analyzed separately by gender, suggest that women report significantly more stressors than men, whereas employment arrangement did not have an effect. All couples, however, seem to benefit by reframing their problems to make them more manageable. Perceptual changes families may make to cope with stresses imposed by external factors such as inflexible work hours and lack of adequate child care over which they have less control are discussed.

Consideration of how to integrate occupational and family roles is crucial to the psychological development of adolescents and young adults today. This paper reports on a self-report instrument designed to assess perceptions of involvement in occupational and family roles in young women and men. The Orientations to Occupational-Family Integration consists of three separate scales that reflect three types of orientation -- (1) male traditional, (2) female traditional, and (3) male and female atraditional. Reliability and validity data are reported from two studies, one with 81 adolescent girls and one with 122 college women and men. Uses of the measure for research and educational purposes are described briefly.

Differences in coping across five family life cycle stages are identified using responses from 329 dual-career women and men. Coping strategy use differs significantly by gender and life cycle stage. Women utilize the coping strategies of Cognitive Restructuring, Delegating, Limiting Avocational Activities, and Using Social Support significantly more often than do men. Dual-career men and women without children at home use Compartmentalizing significantly less frequently than men and women with children. Respondents whose oldest child is under age 6 reported less use of Delegating than those with an oldest child age 13-18. Limiting Avocational Activities is used less often by participants with children under age 6 than by those with older children. The results are discussed from a family life cycle perspective.

Utilizing 41 black dual-career couples, this investigation examines the contribution of 10 aspects of life, ranging from marriage to leisure time activities, to global life happiness. Regression analysis indicates that marital happiness and happiness with career are significant predictors of global life happiness. For both husbands and wives, marital happiness is the strongest determinant of global life happiness. Further analyses indicate that family cohesion is the strongest determinant of marital happiness for the husbands, while quality communication is the strongest determinant of marital happiness for the wives. Findings and implications are discussed.

This study broadens the construct of intimate relationships to include the experience of lesbian couples. Various psychological variables were assessed in both partners of 275 lesbian couples who considered themselves to be dual career. Because of the paucity of information on lesbian relationships in the literature, considerable attention is first given to describing this sizable sample. Individual and couple scores on each variable were correlated with relationship satisfaction scores. Among individuals, role conflict and personal autonomy were found to correlate negatively with relationship satisfaction, whereas dyadic attachment, power, intimacy, self-esteem, and life satisfaction were all positively correlated with relationship satisfaction. Although career commitment was not correlated with relationship satisfaction among individuals, differences between partners' levels of career commitment correlated negatively with each partner's relationship satisfaction. The findings counter extant stereotypes regarding lesbian relationships and provide a more accurate basis for developing an heuristic model of intimate relationships among women.

Marriages between dentists are increasing: while slightly more than 2 percent of male dentists are married to other dentists, 30 percent of female dentists come home to spouses in the same profession. For those younger than 30, corresponding figures are 4 percent and 31 percent. Informal interviews indicate that female dental students, who are rapidly coming to make up half the dental school enrollment, often marry their classmates. Stories of several dental school courtships that led to marriages are recounted. The couples interviewed stressed the great advantage of similar careers in promoting empathy for one another: each has a clear idea of the kinds of stresses to which the other is exposed. In one case, a household rule has been made to limit dental conversation each evening to no more than one half hour. Husbands and wives can cover for each other in emergency situations. Non-dental spouses often feel left out in professional and social gatherings when many dentists are present. An undesired consequence of dentist-dentist marriages can be professional inbreeding, where one's world narrows to people associated with the profession. Couples need to make efforts to develop friendships with non-dentists. Problems cited by dental couples center mainly around the difficulties of building parallel, separate careers. Other dentists may resist referring patients to specialists whose spouses are general dentists, fearing the patients will continue treatment with the spouse. The couples interviewed practice dentistry separately and do not want to work in the same office. Overall, all felt that marrying another dentist brought more benefits than problems. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

THE PHENOMENAL INCREASE in the number of married women in paid employment and the consequent emergence of the dual-career couple have raised the potential for stress and strain arising from [...]