Wives' Shift Work Schedules and Husbands' and Wives' Well-Being in Dual-Earner Couples With Children

Abstract

In a sample of 55 dual-earner families with children aged 8 to 14 in which the mothers are registered nurses regularly working either day shifts (typically 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) or evening shifts (typically 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.), we estimated the within-couple relationship between the wife's work variables (i.e., work shift, work hours, and the interaction between work shift and work hours) and each spouse's work—family conflict, psychological distress, and marital-role quality. Wives' work variables predicted their own work—family conflict and psychological distress and showed a trend to predict their husbands' work—family conflict.