Determinants of Spousal Interaction: Marital Structure or Marital Happiness

This paper examines factors associated with marital interaction, particularly work roles, marital structure, and marital happiness. Evidence from a nationwide probability sample of 2034 men and women suggests that heavy work involvement of husbands as well as wives, number of children, and a traditional division of household labor all reduce the proportion of time couples spend in joint activity. The determinants of interaction are found to differ significantly by racial/ethnic group. A major finding of this paper is the importance of marital happiness as a determinant of interaction. Using two-stage leastsquares analysis, the paper examines the nonrecursive relationship between interaction and happiness and concludes that previous research has overestimated the effect of interaction on marital happiness.