She Works/he Works: How Two-income Families are Happy, Healthy, and ThrivingThis book is based in great part on the results of a study funded by a four-year, 1 million-dollar grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) to Rosalind C. Barnett at the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. It was designed to identify the stressful as well as the rewarding aspects of the lives of full-time employed two-earner couples. The study was conducted in two communities in the greater Boston area, chosen because they have a high proportion of two-earner couples and a wide diversity of income and occupations. This is not a study of an elite group. While one-third of the group had college degrees and one-third had some graduate training or a graduate degree, one-third had only a high school diploma. At the beginning of the study, the average age for the men was thirty-five; for the women, thirty-four. The overall aim of the study was to learn how the quality of women's and men's experiences in these three major social roles related to their experiences of mental and physical distress. Role quality was defined as the balance between the rewards and the concerns the person experienced in the role. For each role, we asked the men and women in the study to think about the role as it was at the time, not as they wished it was, and tell us how rewarding and how much of a concern were each of a set of specific aspects of that role. Regarding their jobs, for example, subjects were asked how rewarding is "doing work you consider significant" and how much of a concern is "limited opportunity for professional or career development." With respect to the marital role, sample questions asked how rewarding is "enjoying the same activities" and how much of a concern is "your partner being critical of you." For the parent role, subjects were asked, for example how rewarding is "seeing your children mature and change" and how much of a concern is "your having too many arguments and conflicts with them." |
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