Gender, Work-Family Roles, and Psychological Well-Being of Blacks

Abstract

The relationship of family and work roles to the psychological well-being of blacks is explored in this study. A theory of sex-specific social roles, stemming from previous literature based on the work of Gove (1972), is developed and tested. Findings indicate that more general measures of psychological well-being-life satisfaction and happiness-are not affected by sex-specific social roles. Rather, marriage and parenting have a general effect on these well-being measures. Sexspecific work-family roles have an important impact on satisfaction with family life, however. Among men, familial status and employment status produce different levels of satisfaction with family life. Among women, employed women have significantly lower levels of family life satisfaction than women who are not employed, regardless of familial status. Household demands further specify these patterns. Employed men who do most of the household work have particularly low levels of family life satisfaction.