Can working hard at the office invigorate a marriage?
A new study suggests that for working mothers at least, that may be the case. Working moms tend to be happier with their marriages when they are shouldering heavy workloads on the job, says a four-year study of 169 couples published recently in the Journal of Family Psychology. One reason may be that when working moms' workloads increase, their husbands tend to help out more at home, researchers suggest.
This 'may liberate wives from some of the burdens of juggling the two worlds of work and family life, increasing their satisfaction with the marriage,' says the study by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the University of California, Los Angeles. Other studies also have shown that husbands who do more housework tend to have sex more often with their wives.
For many people in general, 'working hard can be energizing and can complement one's role as a spouse,' says the latest study. Affirming this 'work hard, play hard' approach to life, researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found some people are energized by juggling a lot of roles. We have posted before on how the juggle energizes some people, but drains others.
However, when dads' on-the-job workloads rise, both they and their wives tend to become less satisfied with their marriages, the Utrecht University study says. The reasons aren't explained in the study, but they echo other studies documenting what psychologists call 'scarcity theory' the idea that human strivings are sometimes a zero-sum game, and that demands at work drain time and energy for couples to spend on marriage and children.
Readers, which pattern holds true in your household? Does plunging more deeply into your job generate more energy for your marriage and sex life? Or are you drained by a heavy workload, leaving less energy for the rest of your life? How does the situation change when you work harder versus when your spouse is busier on the job? |