Stres in die dubbelinkomstegesin: is daar hoop op verligting? (Stress in the dual-earner family: Is there hope for alleviation?)

One of the most significant trends of our time, manifesting world wide as well as in South Africa and affecting family life extensively, is the continuous rise in the rate of married women entering the labour market. The increasing interface between work and family life, within the work/family spillover model, has led to the conventional belief that, due to the stress within the work-situation, female employment and marital dissolution are causally related. In recent studies researchers are no longer concentrating only on the detrimental effects of the dual-earner family lifestyle, but are increasingly investigating intervening variables which alleviate stress in dual-earner families and which could actually contribute to a higher experience of marital integration and quality.