MARITAL SATISFACTION OF DUAL-EARNER COUPLES

Abstract

This thesis explores a model of marital satisfaction for dual-earner couples based on a synthesis of symbolic interactionism and role theory. Five hypotheses were proposed on the effects of the quality of spouse's role enactment, the quality of self role enactment, consensus on marital role expectations, relative deprivation in the marital situation, and role strain. These hypotheses were tested at three levels of analysis. The first level was the search for the main predictors of marital satisfaction among the entire sample of dual-earner couples. The results suggest that the three best predictors of marital satisfaction were: (a) the perception of one's marriage compared with that of friends and associates; (b) having consensus on what should be done as husbands, wives, and parents; and (c) the perception of the spouse's role enactment. Overall, the entire model explained 61 per cent of the variance in the dual-earner couples' marital satisfaction. The second level of analysis explores the variations of marital satisfaction across four family-life-cycle stages. The findings indicate that couples without children were most satisfied with their marriages, while those with preschoolers experienced the lowest level or marital satisfaction. The latter also reported the greatest amount of role strain, which could partly be attributed to the presence or preschoolers in the family. Not surprisingly, many of these couples expressed some ambivalence about parenting: while they derived a certain sense or joy and fulfilment from their children, they also found looking after them to be a particularly tedious experience, one that left them with little intimate time for each other as husbands and wives. This was more salient among the wives, who often had to shoulder the bulk of the domestic responsibility. The third level of analysis deals with the marital satisfaction among professional and nonprofessional couples. The findings reveal that nonprofessional couples were less satisfied with their marriages than the professional couples. This could be due to the alienating nature of their work which, together with financial pressures, may have a negative effect on their marriages. In addition, many of the nonprofessional couples were met with a sense of powerlessness against having to work longer hours to compensate for the lack of financial resources. This, coupled with the demand for shift work among some of them, may result in a lack of couple time, leading to unhappy compromises, marital conflict, and eventually relationship dissatisfaction. The conclusion points to the need for supportive policies at the work place that are tailored to the demands of dual-earner couples, with a special consideration for nonprofessional couples with preschoolers.