Family variables as mediators of the relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment among dual-career men and women.

ABSTRACT

Selected social-psychological processes within the family were examined as potential mediators of the relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment among career men and women in the United States. Seventy-nine men and 198 women who were professionals in psychology participated in the study. A path-analytic model was used to test two specific family variables--perceptions of equity in spousal home division of labor and perceptions of spousal social support--as potential mediators of the proposed negative relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment. Spousal social support and equity in spousal home division of labor played an important, albeit small, mediating role in the negative relationship between work-family conflict and marital adjustment for men and women. Contrary to expectations, gender exhibited no overall indirect effect on marital adjustment.