Status Inequality and Stress in Marriage

Emotional stresses that are experienced in marriage are traced to differences in spouses' status origins. Linking status differences to such stress are a number of intervening conditions. People to whom status advancement is important and who have married mates of lower status are apt to have a sense of loss that leads, in turn, to a disruptions of reciprocity, expressiveness, affection and value sharing in marital exchange. Such disruptions then act as immediate antecedents to emotional stress. It is through this process that the status order of the larger society can reach out to have a deleterious influence on the emotional states arising out of marital transactions.