Work Stress and Marital Quality in Dual Earner Couples: A Test of Three Mediation Models

Abstract

This research was conducted on 340 full-time employed marital couples representing a proportional quota sample of inhabitants that live in Zagreb and its metropolitan area. The aim was to test the effect of stress on marital quality when mediated by three variables. Three models were created using mediator variables: Perception of negative spillover from work in the first model, Marital strain in the second model and Depression in the third model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) ML Robust was used to test the effect of work stress. Results show that work stress decreases marital quality via mediator variables in both marital partners. Although all three models fit the data, the explanatory power of the models was different. The model in which Marital strain was the mediator variable turned out to be the best in terms of explanatory power, explaining 26% of wives' and 17% of husbands' variance of the variable Marital quality. The obtained results are discussed and suggestions for further research of the topic are suggested.