Behavioral and psychological consequences of unemployment in blue-collar couples

The behavioral and psychological consequences of involuntary unemployment in blue-collar couples were investigated using Scanzoni's (1972) dynamic model of marital exchange. Thirty-one couples in which the husband had been laid off for at least 3 months were compared with 32 couples in which the husband was employed full time, in terms of exchange behaviors, psychological well-being, and marital satisfaction. As predicted, unemployed husbands reported lower psychological well-being and marital satisfaction, while their wives reported lower marital satisfaction. Unemployed husbands had not significantly altered their exchange behaviors, perhaps due in part to their traditional attitudes toward marital roles which continue to render the contemporary marital exchange relatively inflexible. Level of expressive behavior was by far the most powerful predictor of marital satisfaction for husbands and wives alike. Incongruity in attitudes toward marital roles between traditional husbands and modern wives may constitute both a preexisting source of dissatisfaction and a risk factor following unemployment. These results partially support Scanzoni's model but suggest that the negative consequences of unemployment in blue-collar couples appear first in the psychological as opposed to the behavioral domain.