Eamonn  Barron,Ela  Polek,Jennifer Mulligan Rabbit,
Women work-hours constraint is associated with their own depression and their partners? low relationship satisfaction: Evidence from the Growing up in Ireland Infant Cohort Study
Psychological Disorders and Research
2018
2674-2470
http://dx.doi.org/10.10xx/j.PDR.2018.10.001
https://www.sciencerepository.org/women-work-hours-constraint-is-associated-with-their-own-depression-and-their-partners-low-relationship-satisfaction-evidence-from-the-growing-up-in-ireland-infant-cohort-study_PDR-1-101 
Abstract: This study examined the effect of work-hours constraint, i.e., the discrepancy in women’s actual and ideal
hours worked, on couple’s mental health (depression symptoms assessed with a questionnaire) and
relationship satisfaction. Irish dual-earner couples (N=3,928), participants of a large cohort study the
Growing Up in Ireland, were assigned to three groups based on women’s work-hours constraint:
overemployed, underemployed and adequately employed. Group comparison carried out with MANCOVA
indicated that adequately employed women had lower depression than over- and underemployed women,
but no group differences were found in women’s relationship satisfaction. We also found lower levels of
relationship satisfaction in partners of over- and underemployed women. It was hypothesized that negative
crossover between partners would be accentuated under situations of greater stress (i.e., in over- and
underemployed groups). Multiple group pathway analysis showed a stronger negative crossover effect from
partner’s depression to women’s relationship satisfaction in the overemployed group, but not in
underemployed group. These findings suggest that greater attention should be directed at a governmental
and organizational level to facilitate correspondence between actual and preferred working hours for
mothers of infants and their partners.Keywords: depression, relationship satisfaction, underemployment, over employment, crossover