Socioeconomic Rewards and Perceived Marital Quality: A Re-Examination

A review of research literature bearing on the empirical generalization that socioeconomic rewards in marriage, such as income, education, and occupational prestige, are positively and linearly associated with faivorable marital outcomes, yielded inconsistent results. Earlier studies from the 1950s and 1960s have generally supported this proposition, whereas more recent analyses qf higher methodological quality have not. Drawing upon a sample of 240 spouses (120 couples) who span all but the most poverty-stricken levels of the social stratification hierarchy, the present analysis attempted to test an alternative model by linking five measures of socioeconomic reward contributions of both husband and wife to 12 indicators of perceived marital quality, including perceived role competence of spouse, marital satisifaction, and dyadic commitment. The findings are generally unsupportive of the idea that higher levels qf socioeconomic rewards lead to marriages that are perceived as more satisfying and stable. However, in support of the alternative model, socioeconomic rewards were found to be moderately related to two of the 12 dependent variable measures for wives: (1) perceptions of their husbands as competent providers and (2) reports of satisfaction with spouse's income. Husbands' perceptions of marital quality were unaffected by varying socioeconomic reward levels.