The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction in the Work Stress-Marital Interaction Relationship

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between work stress and a specific aspect of marital functioning, namely, marital interaction. An interactionist model of stress was adopted, with three role stresses, namely, role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload, being used as indicators of work stress. Despite the abundance of studies investigating the link between employment and family functioning over the past decade, the causal link between the two domains remains unclear. As previous research has indicated that the relationship between work and family is neither simple nor linear, the present study aimed to investigate the role of job satisfaction in the relationship. The final sample of the study consisted of 80 married men employed in a large financial organization. Data were gathered in the form of self-report questionnaires. Statistical analysis, using a longitudinal path analytic research design, did not support the proposed mediational model, that is, job satisfaction was not found to mediate the relationship between work stress and marital functioning.