Adverse work experiences and marital outcomes in middle years: Role of self‐esteem

This study assesses the decade-long influence of adverse work experiences on husbands’ and wives’ problem-solving behaviors and marital quality through self-esteem using structural equation modeling with a sample of 308 dual-earning couples. Analyses controlled for earlier marital quality, allowing for assessment of the residual change in marital quality over 10 years. Adverse work experiences directly affected marital quality and indirectly affected decreases in marital quality through lower self-esteem; lastly, individuals’ self-esteem was positively related to increased problem-solving behaviors. In addition, there was a crossover association, with wives’ and husbands’ self-esteem influencing one another’s problem-solving behaviors. These results contribute to a deeper understanding about the processes responsible for the detrimental impact of adverse work experiences. Adverse work experiences and family life are intricately intertwined with one another, causing experiences in one domain to affect the other (Matthews, Conger, & Wickrama, 1996; Minnotte, Minnotte, & Bonstrom, 2015). This association is particularly important because the number of dual-earner couples has steadily risen since the 1970s. As of 2012, 60% of married individuals in the workforce were dual-earner couples, a 45% increase since 1960 (Pew Research Center, 2012). Additionally, as the age of retirement increases, it is important to consider how adverse work experiences affect individuals as they age. With the rise in dual-earner couples, the increasing retirement age, and the abundance of research indicating that work context is influential for Victoria King, Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia; Kandauda K. A. S. Wickrama, Child and Family Development, University of Georgia; Catherine Walker O’Neal, Child and Family Development, University of Georgia; Frederick O. Lorenz, Department of Statistics, Iowa State University. Correspondence should be addressed to Victoria King, University of Georgia, Department of Human Development and Family Science, 114 Dawson Hall, 305 Sanford Dr., Athens, GA 30605, e-mail: vab70424@uga.edu. family life, it is important to understand how husbands’ and wives’ adverse work experiences in the early middle years (average age of 40) can impact their marital quality in the later middle years (average age of 50). Midlife (defined as ages 40–50) is a life stage filled with events and transitions that are often stressful, including adverse work experiences, and these stressors can be transferred to other life domains, with long-term consequences on well-being and marital relationships (Cleland, Kearns, Tannahill, & Ellaway, 2016; Moos, Brennan, Schutte, & Moss, 2006). This study seeks to elucidate individual-level processes that link work experiences to middle-aged husbands’ and wives’ marital quality through a psychocognitive lens. Previous research on the work socialization tradition suggests that work experiences influence individuals’ personal resources, such as feelings of mastery, control, and self-esteem (Kohn & Schooler, 1973; Wickrama, Surjadi, Lorenz, & Elder, 2008), which, in turn, has implications for couples’ marital problem-solving behaviors (Hakanen, Wilmar, & Ahola, 2008). In particular, a lack