The emotional terrain of parenting and marriage: Emotion work and marital satisfaction

This article was prepared as a contribution to multi-state project W-167 with funding support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station (Project No. 869).

Abstract

This study examines how the division of labor surrounding emotion work relates to the marital satisfaction of husbands and wives. The analysis is performed on data from a random sample of couples with at least one child from a northern city in a western state (N = 96 couples). Results suggest that for both husbands and wives the emotion work received from and performed for their spouse is significantly and positively related to marital satisfaction. Results also suggest that the marital satisfaction of husbands is enhanced when they are involved in performing emotion work for children, but if their levels of emotion work for children begin to approach or exceed that of their wives then their marital satisfaction tends to decline. Implications of the study are discussed.

Keywords:

• Emotion work
• Marital satisfaction
• Marriage
• Emotional support
• Gender
• Children

Notes

This article was prepared as a contribution to multi-state project W-167 with funding support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station (Project No. 869).