Jared A Lyle and Dr. Mikaela Dufur, Sociology
Does the complexity of a woman’s occupation have a direct influence on her marital happiness? If so, what are the implications on her family and community?
Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has steadily risen from 39 to 59 percent since 1965 (U.S. Department of Labor 1996). During this same time, however, marital happiness has gradually decreased (Amato and Booth 1997). Noticing the disparity between these figures, researchers of late have expanded the previously “narrow research area” of the interplay of work and family, particularly of women’s relationship thereto, “into a sprawling domain of study involving researchers from several disciplines and theoretical perspectives” (Perry-Jenkins, Repetti and Crouter 2000:981).
One particular strand of this work and family conundrum delves into the interchange between females’ occupational complexity and their resulting marital happiness. Hughes, Galinsky and Morris (1992) researched the effects of job characteristics on marital quality, seeking to build “a clear empirical model for understanding the processes by which job variables translate into family outcomes” (31). Their findings provided salient results, such as that employees in jobs with high stress may argue more frequently with their spouses. However, their study did not distinguish “differences in the work-family experiences of men and women” (41), making it difficult to contrive a female specific analysis of work-family experiences.
Menaghan and Parcel’s (1991, 1995) studies, which delved into the relation between occupational complexity of women and the creation of positive home environments for children, helped provide a more female specific model. They discovered that jobs with higher complexity positively affect the home environment for children and their mothers. Still, Menaghan and Parcel’s work analyzed the relationship of occupational complexity with children’s home environment, and not marital happiness between a husband and wife.
Building upon this healthy framework of previous research, this study looks at information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to determine how a female’s occupational complexity relates to her marital happiness. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth was begun in 1979, thereafter “following approximately 6,000 women with annual interviews regarding their educational, occupational, marital, and fertility experiences” (Menaghan and Parcel 1995:74).
In the original methodology of this study, marital happiness and occupational complexity were to be measured according to outside sources and then statistically analyzed using SPSS, with marital happiness being the dependent variable and occupational complexity and sex being the independent variables. Hughes et al.’s (1992) revision of the Marriage Adjustment Balance Scale, with tension and companionship categories as collection points, was to be used to measure marital happiness. Occupational complexity was to be measured by matching Dictionary of Occupational Titles data, compiled by the U.S. government, to the occupational codes of females’ current jobs (see Menaghan and Parcel 1995). Also, the original sample size was intended as 1,403, to be drawn from samples in 1986 and 1988. During the course of research, though, certain changes have been enacted. To begin, the sample size has been amended to 1214. This sample size matches up with a more current sampling, that of 1998, instead of the years 1986 and 1988. While the measurement of occupational complexity has not changed, the measurement of marital satisfaction has. Indeed, the intended method of calculating marital satisfaction did not match up with the variables provided within the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Therefore, a new measurement device—one that will correspond to the information provided—is currently being sought out.
Nonetheless, the expected results of this study remain the same. That is, a woman’s occupational complexity should have a direct influence on her marital happiness. Women employed in jobs of high occupational complexity should exhibit high levels of marital happiness. This could be due to their ability to think freely and autonomously at work, which could lead to openness and understanding with their spouses away from work. Whereas, women in jobs of low occupational complexity would likely feel constrained or unchallenged at work and carry these feelings to their marital relationships.
References
- Amato, Paul R. and Alan Booth. 1997. Generations at Risk: Growing Up in an Era of Family Upheaval. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Hughes, Diane, Ellen Galinsky and Anne Morris. 1992. “The Effects of Job Characteristics on Marital Quality: Specifying Linking Mechanisms.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 54:31-42.
- Menaghan, Elizabeth G. and Toby L. Parcel. 1991. “Determining Children’s Home Environments: The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Current Occupational and Family Conditions.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 53:417-431.
- Menaghan, Elizabeth G. and Toby L. Parcel. 1995. “Social Sources of Change in Children’s Home Environment: The Effects of Parental Occupational Experiences and Family Conditions. Journal of Marriage and the Family 57:69-84.
- Perry-Jenkins, Maureen, Rena L. Repetti and Ann C. Crouter. 2000. “Work and Family in the 1990s.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 62:981-998.
- U.S. Department of Labor. January 1996. Employment and Earnings. Report 928. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.