Using Panel Study of Income Dynamics 2001-2015 dataset (6,035 households, 19,688 observations), this study takes a new approach to investigating the relationship between wife’s relative income and husband’s psychological distress, and finds it to be significantly U-shaped. Controlling for total household income, predicted male psychological distress reaches a minimum at a point where wives make 40% of total household income and proceeds to increase, to reach highest level when men are entirely economically dependent on their wives. These results reflect the stress associated with being the sole breadwinner, and more significantly, with gender norm deviance due to husbands being outearned by their wives. Interestingly, the relationship between wife’s relative income and husband’s psychological distress is not found among couples where wives outearned husbands at the beginning of their marriage pointing to importance of marital selection. Finally, patterns reported by wives are not as pronouncedly U-shaped as those reported by husbands.
AddisM. E. (2008). Gender and depression in men. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 15, 153-168.
2.
AddisM. E.MahalikJ. R. (2003). Men, masculinity, and the contexts of help seeking. American Psychologist, 58(1), 5-14.
3.
BaillieA. J. (2005). Predictive gender and education bias in Kessler’s Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 40, 743-748.
4.
BeachS. R.TesserA.MendoliaM.AndersonP.CreliaR.WhitakerD.FinchamF. D. (1996). Self-evaluation maintenance in marriage: Toward a performance ecology of the marital relationship. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 379-396.
5.
BeckerG. S. (1991). A treatise on the family (Revised and enlarged ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6.
BertrandM.KamenicaE.PanJ. (2015). Gender identity and relative income within households. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130, 571-614.
7.
BittmanM.EnglandP.SayerL.FolbreN.MathesonG. (2003). When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology, 109, 186-214.
BlumsteinP.SchwartzP. (1983). American couples: Money, work, sex. New York, NY: William Morrow.
10.
BoothA.JohnsonD. R.WhiteL.EdwardsJ. N. (1984). Women, outside employment, and marital instability. American Journal of Sociology, 90, 567-583.
11.
BoyceC. J.BrownG. D.MooreS. C. (2010). Money and happiness: Rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 21, 471-475.
12.
BrinesJ. (1994). Economic dependency, gender, and the division of labor at home. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 652-688.
13.
BrinesJ.JoynerK. (1999). The ties that bind: Principles of cohesion in cohabitation and marriage. American Sociological Review, 64, 333-355.
14.
BrownS. L. (2000). The effect of union type on psychological well-being: Depression among cohabitors versus marrieds. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 41, 241-255.
15.
ChuickC. D.GreenfeldJ. M.GreenbergS. T.ShepardS. J.CochranS. V.HaleyJ. T. (2009). A qualitative investigation of depression in men. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10, 302-313.
16.
ClarkA. E.OswaldA. J. (1996). Satisfaction and comparison income. Journal of Public Economics, 61, 359-381.
17.
ClementS.SchaumanO.GrahamT.MaggioniF.Evans-LackoS.BezborodovsN.. . .ThornicroftG. (2015). What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychological Medicine, 45(1), 11-27.
18.
CookK. S., & Emerson, R. M. (1987). Social exchange theory. Sage Publications, Inc.
19.
CourtenayW. H. (2000). Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men’s well-being: A theory of gender and health. Social Science & Medicine, 50, 1385-1401.
20.
CuiJ. (2007). QIC program and model selection in GEE analyses. Stata Journal, 7, 209-220.
21.
DiggleP.DiggleP. J.HeagertyP.HeagertyP. J.LiangK. Y.ZegerS. (2002). Analysis of longitudinal data. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
22.
EdwardsA. L. (1953). The relationship between the judged desirability of a trait and the probability that the trait will be endorsed. Journal of Applied Psychology, 37, 90-93.
23.
Ferrer-i-CarbonellA. (2005). Income and well-being: An empirical analysis of the comparison income effect. Journal of Public Economics, 89, 997-1019.
24.
FitzmauriceG. M.LairdN. M.WareJ. H. (2004). Applied longitudinal analysis. New York, NY: Wiley.
25.
FryR.CohnD. (2010). Women, men and the new economics of marriage. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
26.
HeerD. M. (1963). The measurement and bases of family power: An overview. Marriage and Family Living, 25, 133-139.
27.
HiedemannB.SuhomlinovaO.O’RandA. M. (1998). Economic independence, economic status, and empty nest in midlife marital disruption. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 219-231.
28.
HornseyM. J. (2008). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory: A historical review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 204-222.
29.
IdlerE. L. (2003). Discussion: Gender differences in self-rated health, in mortality, and in the relationship between the two. The Gerontologist, 43, 372-375.
30.
JonesA. M.WildmanJ. (2008). Health, income and relative deprivation: Evidence from the BHPS. Journal of Health Economics, 27, 308-324.
31.
JonssonA. C.AllwoodC. M. (2003). Stability and variability in the realism of confidence judgments over time, content domain, and gender. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 559-574.
32.
KalmijnM.LoeveA.MantingD. (2007). Income dynamics in couples and the dissolution of marriage and cohabitation. Demography, 44, 159-179.
33.
KesslerR. C. (1982). A disaggregation of the relationship between socioeconomic status and psychological distress. American Sociological Review, 47, 752-764.
34.
KesslerR. C.AndrewsG.ColpeL. J.HiripiE.MroczekD. K.NormandS. L.. . . ZaslavskyA. M. (2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine, 32, 959-976.
35.
KesslerR. C.McRaeJ. A.Jr. (1982). The effect of wives’ employment on the mental health of married men and women. American Sociological Review, 47, 216-227.
36.
KnoesterC.BoothA. (2000). Barriers to divorce: When are they effective? When are they not?Journal of Family Issues, 21, 78-99.
37.
LiangK. Y.ZegerS. L. (1986). Longitudinal data analysis using generalized linear models. Biometrika, 73(1), 13-22.
38.
LundbergS.PollakR. A. (1993). Separate spheres bargaining and the marriage market. Journal of Political Economy, 101, 988-1010.
39.
LundbergS.PollakR. A. (1996). Bargaining and distribution in marriage. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10, 139-158.
40.
LuttmerE. F. (2005). Neighbors as negatives: Relative earnings and well-being. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120, 963-1002.
41.
MaccobyE. E.JacklinC. N. (1974). The psychology of sex differences (Vol. 2). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
42.
MarianneB. (2011). New perspectives on gender. Handbook of Labor Economics, 4, 1543-1590.
43.
MarmotM. (2002). The influence of income on health: Views of an epidemiologist. Health Affairs, 21(2), 31-46.
44.
McDonoughP.WilliamsD. R.HouseJ. S.DuncanG. J. (1999). Gender and the socioeconomic gradient in mortality. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40, 17-31.
45.
McElroyM. B. (1990). The empirical content of Nash-bargained household behavior. Journal of Human Resources, 25, 559-583.
46.
McElroyM. B.HorneyM. J. (1981). Nash-bargained household decisions: Toward a generalization of the theory of demand. International Economic Review, 22, 333-349.
47.
MincerJ. (1958). Investment in human capital and personal income distribution. Journal of Political Economy, 66, 281-302.
48.
Möller-LeimkühlerA. M. (2002). Barriers to help-seeking by men: A review of sociocultural and clinical literature with particular reference to depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 71(1-3), 1-9.
49.
MolmL. D.CookK. S. (1995). Social exchange and exchange networks. Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology, 2, 209-235.
50.
MooreK. A.WaiteL. J. (1981). Marital dissolution, early motherhood and early marriage. Social Forces, 60(1), 20-40.
51.
PanW. (2001). Akaike’s information criterion in generalized estimating equations. Biometrics, 57, 120-125.
52.
ParsonsT. (1959). The social structure of the family. In AnshenR. N. (Ed.), The family: Its function and destiny (pp. 241-273). New York, NY: Harper.
53.
PierceL.DahlM. S.NielsenJ. (2013). In sickness and in wealth: Psychological and sexual costs of income comparison in marriage. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39, 359-374.
54.
PinkusR. T.LockwoodP.SchimmackU.FournierM. A. (2008). For better and for worse: Everyday social comparisons between romantic partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1180-1201.
55.
PotuchekJ. L. (1997). Who supports the family? Gender and breadwinning in dual-earner marriages. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
56.
RogersS. J. (1999). Wives’ income and marital quality: Are there reciprocal effects?Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 123-132.
57.
RogersS. J.AmatoP. R. (1997). Is marital quality declining? The evidence from two generations. Social Forces, 75, 1089-1100.
58.
RosenfieldS. (1992). The costs of sharing: Wives’ employment and husbands’ mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 33, 213-225.
59.
RossC. E. (2017). Social causes of psychological distress. New York, NY: Routledge.
60.
ScanzoniJ. (1979). Social exchange and behavioral interdependence. In BurgessR.HustonT. (Eds), Social exchange in developing relationships (pp. 61-98). Academic Press.
61.
SchneiderD. (2012). Gender deviance and household work: The role of occupation. American Journal of Sociology, 117, 1029-1072.
62.
SchoenR.RogersS. J.AmatoP. R. (2006). Wives’ employment and spouses’ marital happiness: Assessing the direction of influence using longitudinal couple data. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 506-528.
63.
SimonsohnU. (2018). Two lines: A valid alternative to the invalid testing of U-shaped relationships with quadratic regressions. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1, 538-555.
64.
SpringerK. W. (2010). Economic dependence in marriage and husbands’ midlife health: Testing three possible mechanisms. Gender & Society, 24, 378-401.
65.
SpringerK. W.LeeC.CarrD. (2019). Spousal breadwinning across 30 years of marriage and husbands’ health: A gendered life course stress approach. Journal of Aging and Health, 31, 37-66.
66.
TesserA. (1988). Toward a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior. In BerkowitzL. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21. pp. 181-227). Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
67.
ThébaudS. (2010). Gender and entrepreneurship as a career choice: Do self-assessments of ability matter?Social Psychology Quarterly, 73, 288-304.
68.
ThomeerM. B.UmbersonD.PudrovskaT. (2013). Marital processes around depression: A gendered and relational perspective. Society and Mental Health, 3, 151-169.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
