Economic stress and marital adjustment among couples: analyses at the dyadic level

Abstract

Abstract This survey study of 608 Finnish couples investigated the question of how economic stress is reflected in marital adjustment on the basis of the model presented by Conger and colleagues. We used the couple as a unit of analysis, performing a dyadic‐level analysis within the framework of LISREL models. The model showed that the path by which economic circumstances were linked to marital adjustment was as follows: poor economic circumstances were linked to economic strain, which was related to increased psychological distress, and psychological distress in turn was negatively reflected in marital adjustment. However, psychological distress only partially mediated the link between economic strain and marital adjustment: economic strain was also directly linked to decreased marital adjustment. In addition, there occurred crossover between partners' experiences. First, wives' psychological distress was negatively related to husbands' reports of marital adjustment and vice versa. Second, unemployment among men was directly linked to reports of marital adjustment among women: the longer the man's total spell of unemployment, the poorer the woman's marital adjustment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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