Gender and the relationship between job experiences and psychological distress: a study of dual-earner couples

Abstract

This article examines the association between job role quality and psychological distress in a sample of 300 full-time employed dual-earner couples, controlling for such individual level variables as age, education, occupational prestige, and marital quality and for such couple level variables as length of marriage, parental status, and household income. The magnitude of this effect is compared for men and for women. Results indicate that job role quality is significantly negatively associated with psychological distress for women as well as for men and that the magnitude of the effect depends little, if at all, on gender, casting doubt on the widely held view that job experiences more significantly influence men's mental health states than women's. The results are discussed in the context of differentiating between sex differences and gender differences.