Professional and Familial Work Loads, Relationship Satisfaction and Well-being: The Mediating Role of Subjective Work Loads and Perceived Justice of the Division of Family Work Bernhard Riederer, Gerold Mikula and Otto Bodi University of Graz, Austria Research Report No. 1, 2008 FWF Austrian Science Fund, Project P18817-G14 Division of Family Work: Evaluations and Social Comparisons
Abstract The study deals with effects of professional and familial work loads on women s and men s relationship satisfaction and well-being. The focus is on subjective work loads and perceived of the divisions of family work as mediator variables of the work load effects. Structural equation modeling analyses of data from a two-wave panel study with a convenience sample of dual earner couples (N = 389) reveal that (1) objective work loads have almost no direct effects upon relationship satisfaction or well-being, (2) the perceived of the division of family work is primarily relevant to relationship satisfaction, and (3) the subjective work loads are primarily relevant to well-being. The effects are partly different for women and men, and for the divisions of and. p. 2 Research Report No. 1
Aims of Research This study investigated effects of the multiple loads of professional and familial work on the relationship satisfaction and well-being of women and men in dual-earner couples with young children. The focus was on the role of two subjective work-related appraisals as mediator variables of the work load effects: the s of professional and familial work, and perceived of the division of family work between the partners. In addition, we explored possible differences between different kinds of family work and differences between women and men. The study considered two different kinds of family work, i.e. household labor and. Results with women were already published (Mikula, Riederer, & Bodi, 2008). Thus, the current paper focuses on results with men and on the comparison between the sexes. Research Questions and Hypotheses (1) Theory and research suggest that subjective appraisals are important mediators between stressful conditions and their consequences for individuals coping and well-being (e.g., Lazarus, 1999). Similarly, research on the effects of the multiple work loads of professional work and family work has shown that subjective appraisals of the multiple loads mediate the associations between the objective loads and their consequences (e.g. Frone, 2003). Accordingly, we assume that negative effects of the objective work load on relationship satisfaction and well-being result primarily when the work load is felt to be a burden. (2) Social psychological research on has shown that perceptions of and in have important consequences on how people feel and behave in various domains of social life (cf. Greenberg & Colquitt, 2005; Mikula, 1998; Tyler & Smith, 1998). As the division of family work is usually strongly imbalanced to the disadvantage of women we expect perceived of the division of family work to be an important mediator between objective load of family work and relationship satisfaction and well-being, especially for women. (3) Generally, relationship satisfaction is positively linked to well-being (e.g., Gove, Hughes, & Briggs Style, 1983). If the perception of of the division of family work affects relationship satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction affects well-being, it seems reasonable to expect indirect effects of perceived on individual well-being via relationship satisfaction. (4) It seems plausible that women will perceive a given imbalanced division of work as more unjust above all when they feel their share of work to be a burden. For men it is less clear how this association should look like. Research Report No. 1 p. 3
To summarize, we expected that the effects of the objective work loads of professional and familial work upon relationship satisfaction and well-being would be mediated to a large degree by the subjectively felt work loads and the perceived of the divisions of household labor and. Moreover, we expected that the s of the two familial tasks would contribute to the perceived of the divisions of and, at least with women. Objective Work Load () Feelings and appraisals Consequences well- being household labour relationship satisfaction Figure 1. Research model showing all links initially considered between the variables. Data and Analytic Strategy The data have been obtained with the women and men of 389 couples who participated in two survey-waves with a interval of about three years (138 Austrian, 118 German, and 133 Swiss couples). We performed structural equation modeling analyses by use of the AMOS 6.0 software package. Our analytic strategy comprised several steps that are described in detail in Mikula, Riederer, and Bodi (2008). Figure 1 shows all links assumed in the first steps of the analyses. At the end, however, we set up more parsimonious revised constrained models by removing some insignificant paths of earlier steps. Figure 2 shows these revised models. p. 4 Research Report No. 1
Women.16 (.19) (.16) -.09 (-.11) -.10.12 (-.09) -.30 (-.31) -.21 (-.20) -.15 (-.14).08 (.08) well-being.19 (.23).08 (.09) -.24 (-.23).31.20 (.16) -.11 (-.11) -.10 (-.07) (.25) relationship satisfaction Men.06 (.06).12.15 (.18) (.13) (.20).06 (.07).08 -.12.16 (.09) (-.11).16 (.17) -.08 (-.07) -.11 (-.11) -.24 (-.20).09 (.08).06 (.06) -.09 (-.08).13 (.13) well-being.17 (.18) relationship satisfaction Figure 2. Standardized path coefficients of the revised constrained models for Wave 1 and Wave 2 for women (upper panel) and men (lower panel). The coefficients for Wave 2 are shown in parenthesis. Single headed continuous lines indicate significant paths (p 0.05) and dashed lines indicate insignificant paths (p > 0.05). Colored lines and bold numbers indicate differences between sexes. The fit values of the presented models are acceptable (e.g., RMSEA women =.05; RMSEA men =.06). Research Report No. 1 p. 5
Table 1 Standardized total effects of the subjective work loads and the perceived of the division of and upon relationship satisfaction and well-being Women Relationship Satisfaction Well-being Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 1 Wave 2 Subjective -.04 -.03 -.12 -.11 work load of -.17 -.13 -.19 -.17 Perceived.20.16.12.12 of.31.25.06.06 Men Subjective -.01 -.01 -.13 -.11 work load of.00.00 -.01 -.01 Perceived.13.13.08.08 of.00.00.09.08 Note. The standardized total effects refer to the revised constrained model. Total effects include direct and indirect effects. Results Results with Women Figure 2 (upper panel) shows the results with women that are discussed in detail in Mikula, Riederer, and Bodi (2008). In short, the results showed that the objective work loads (i.e. spent for the different tasks) have almost no direct effects upon relationship satisfaction and well-being. Most effects are mediated by the s of professional and familial work, and perceived of the divisions of and. The results for the data from the two survey waves were virtually identical. On the whole, perceived of the division of was more relevant to women s relationship satisfaction and wellbeing than perceived of the division of domestic work (see Table 1). Results with Men Figure 2 (lower panel) shows that basically the same conclusions can be drawn with men. Men s relationship satisfaction and well-being were not directly affected by the men spend on,, or. But there were a number of indirect effects of objective work loads upon well-being via the subjective work loads of professional work and, via perceived of the division of, and via p. 6 Research Report No. 1
relationship satisfaction. Aside from many similarities between the sexes, we also found some differences worth mentioning. Similarities and Differences between the Sexes (1) For both women and men, the objective work loads (i.e. spent for the different tasks) had almost no direct effects upon relationship satisfaction and well-being. Most effects were mediated by the s of professional and familial work, and perceived of the divisions of and. (2) The subjective work load of and, and the perceived of the division of the two tasks, were highly relevant to women s relationship satisfaction. In contrast, men s relationship satisfaction was largely unaffected by these tasks. Only the perceived of the division of contributed to men s relationship satisfaction. (3) The effects of objective work loads of and on perceived were completely mediated by the subjectively felt work loads of the two tasks with women. With men, there were also direct effects from objective work load on perceived. (4) While women s well-being was the higher, the less women spent for household labor, men s well-being was the higher, the more men spent for. (5) Women s relationship satisfaction was the lower the more women spent for. With men more spent for went along with higher relationship satisfaction (p <.06). Conclusions The first aim of our work was to investigate the role of subjectively felt loads of professional and familial work, and perceived of the divisions of and, as mediator variables of work load effects. Our results showed that objective work loads have almost no direct effects upon relationship satisfaction and well-being. Effects are mediated by the subjectively felt loads of professional and familial work, and perceived of the divisions of and. In general, results with women were similar to results with men. The most remarkable difference was that the subjectively felt work loads of and, and the perceived of the division of the two tasks between the woman and the man, were much more relevant to the relationship satisfaction of women than men. This is understandable if one considers that women usually do the lion s share of these two tasks. Other differences between the sexes may also have to be explained with recourse to the imbalanced division of family work, e.g., that more spent with Research Report No. 1 p. 7
household tasks was negatively linked to women s well-being but positively linked to men s well-being. Our second goal was to explore possible differences between different kinds of family work. The differences between and that did occur go along with differences between the sexes. Household labor and its division between spouses contributed more to men s relationship satisfaction and well-being than and its division. Contrary, to this, with women, was less important than for relationship satisfaction and well-being. Childcare and its division between the partners may be a particular sensitive subject for women. But that does not mean that the division of is completely irrelevant to men as the perceived of the division of contributes to men s well-being. Both the division of and the division of are important aspects of family work that cannot be ignored in analyzing effects of the division of tasks on women s and men s relationship satisfaction and individual well-being. References Frone, M. R. (2003). Work-family balance. In J. C. Quick & L. E. Tetrick (Eds.), Handbook of Occupational Health Psychology (pp. 143-162). Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Gove, W.R., Hughes, M., & Briggs Style, C. (1983) Does marriage have positive effects on the psychological well-being of the individual? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 122-131. Greenberg, J., & Colquitt, J. A. (2005). Handbook of Organizational Justice. Mahwaw, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis. New York: Springer. Mikula, G. (1998). Division of and perceived : A growing field of research. Social Justice Research, 11, 215-241. Mikula, G., Bodi, O., & Riederer, B. (2008). Women s professional and familial work loads, relationship satisfaction and well-being: The mediating role of subjective work loads and perceived of the division of family work. In A.M. Fontaine & M. Matias (Eds.), Work, Family and Personal Dynamics: International Perspectives. Porto: Legis/LivPsic, in press. Tyler, T. R., & Smith, H. J. (1998). Social and social movement. In D. G. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The Handbook of Social Psychology (vol. 2, pp. 595-629). Boston: McGraw-Hill. p. 8 Research Report No. 1