Stress and distress among husbands and wives

This dissertation is a sociological investigation of the effect of social stress in the paid work and family domains on psychological distress among marital couples. Within the theoretical context of the stress process paradigm, this thesis examines the consequences of both respondents' and their spouses' stress on psychological distress. It presents an elaboration of previous stress research by examining how a broad array of respondents' acute and chronic stressors as well as spouses' stress affects depression. In addition, it documents how psychological and social resources influence the relationship between spouses' stress, respondents' stress, and respondents' psychological distress.;The data for these analyses were originally collected to examine the impact of unemployment on two-parent families with a child under 18 years in the home. This survey was chosen because it included detailed information on personal stressors, psychosocial resources, and symptoms of depression for both husbands and wives. The dependent measure, depressive symptomatology, was measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D). Six dimensions of personal stress were examined: marital strain, caregiving strain, paid work strain, work-home conflict, stressful life events, and perceived financial difficulties. Spouses' stress was constructed by standardizing and summing all six personal stressors to create an omnibus measure of spouses' operant strain. The psychosocial resources consisted of mastery, self-esteem, and perceived social support.;In general, the results were very similar for husbands and wives. Spouses' stress had a significant effect on both husbands' and wives' distress. This effect was mediated completely by the addition of personal stressors. Furthermore, four of the six stressors--marital strain, work strain, work-home conflict, and life events--had significant, independent effects on depression for both spouses. Conversely, caregiving strain was significant for wives' distress while perceived financial difficulties was significant for husbands' distress. There was also evidence of significant interaction effects between some stressors on distress for both spouses. Finally, psychosocial resources both mediated and moderated various relationships between stress and distress. The theoretical implications of these findings for stress research as well as potential avenues for future research are discussed.