Marital Satisfaction and Congruency of Couple Preference Regarding Wife Employment

SynopsisThis paper investigates the relationship between marital satisfaction and congruency of couple preference regarding wife employment. Husband, wife, and couple scores were obtained on the Marital Status Inventory and Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Eight work pattern categories were explored. The first four (Dual Career, Dual Work, Pre-career, Traditional Single Career) were current couple work patterns perceived as desirable by both spouses. The last four categories (Incongruent Dual Career, Incongruent Dual Work, Incongruent Pre-career, Incongruent Traditional Single Career) were current couple work patterns which one spouse perceived as undesirable for the future. In addition, number and ages of children and number of wife work hours were analyzed for their effects on marital adjustment in these couples. More broadly, dual-earner marriages (n = 58) and single-earner marriages (n = 43) were compared on all variables to determine if wife employment per se was significant. The results of this study indicated that marital adjustment was not significantly influenced by either wife employment alone, preference for wife employment by husband and/or wife, or number of hours worked per week for employed wives. Husbands and wives with preschool-aged children reported slightly higher marital adjustment scores than couples without preschool-aged children. The paper also addresses possible reasons for these findings and suggestions for further research.