Status Inconsistency, Traditionality and Marital Distress in the Netherlands

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Abstract
Based on recent literature, when the wife occupies a higher socioeconomic status than her husband, the marital adjustment of couples is expected to be worse than the marital adjustment of couples when the husband has greater status. This was tested in a sample of 37 Dutch dual-career couples. Initially, evidence for the hypothesis was found but was less strong when ‘duration of the relationship’ was taken into account as a covariate. Traditionality of the husband with regard to sex-role patterns was a more important factor. When the wife had the higher socioeconomic status and when the wife had a lower status position, traditionality was strongly related to low marital adjustment of the couples. Couples who had been together less than five years had better relationships than couples who had been together longer. Altogether this sample of dual-career couples showed better marital adjustment than the average Dutch couple. In the discussion the implications of these findings are considered.