Work/Family Fit as a Mediator of Work Factors on Marital Tension: Evidence from the Interface of Greedy Institutions

Abstract

This study tests the notion that the relation between work hours and marital quality is mediated by the perceived fit between work and family. A structural model was developed to examine this hypothesis in a sample of 407 male U.S. Army members and their wives, where both spouses' perceptions of the husband's work are considered. A sample of military families was used for this study because, at the interface between "greedy institutions" (Coser, 1974), the clash of demands between the role domains of work and family may be accentuated. Strong support for the mediation hypothesis was obtained. Actual work hours were unrelated to marital tension, and predicted only wives' satisfaction with husbands' work hours and with husbands' work settings. For husbands, satisfaction with work hours and job satisfaction were positively related to work/family fit, which, in turn, negatively predicted marital tension. No direct associations were seen for work variables on marital tension, but significant indirect relations are mediated by work/family fit. The model reveals parallel findings for wives. The spouses' perceptions of husbands' jobs, work/family fit, and marital tension were all reciprocally related, suggesting a number of avenues by which each partner's attitudes can indirectly affect the other's.