Dual Earner Husbands and Wives: Marital Satisfaction and the Workplace Culture of Each Spouse

This article focuses on the relationship between workplace culture and marital satisfaction for dual-earner husbands and wives
(N = 156 couples). We use contagion theory as a framework, and posit that the experiences of both partners contribute to perceptions of marital satisfaction held by individual spouses. Breaking workplace culture into three
components (time demands, work pressure, and workplace social support), we find evidence in the full model of both individual
(spillover) and spousal (crossover) effects for the marital satisfaction of dual-earner wives, and spousal (crossover) effects
for dual-earner husbands. In particular, our analyses highlight the important role played by wives’ workplace social support.
Implications of the study are discussed.