Traditional Gender Ideology, Work Family Conflict, and Marital Quality among Chinese Dual-Earner Couples: A Moderated Mediation Model

Traditional gender ideology, which refers to individuals’ expectations for the gendered segregation between work and family responsibilities, is a well-documented predictor for marital quality. Using three annual-wave, dyadic data from 240 Chinese dual-earner heterosexual couples surveyed during the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sex roles 2020-11, Vol.83 (9-10), p.622-635
Main Authors: Li, Xiaomin, Cao, Hongjian, Curran, Melissa A., Fang, Xiaoyi, Zhou, Nan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Couples
Dual career couples
Endorsements
Family conflict
Family work relationship
Gender
Gender Studies
Heterosexuality
Husbands
Ideology
Marriage
Mediation
Medicine/Public Health
Original Article
Psychology
Segregation
Sociology
Spouses
Traditional societies
Well being
Wives
Work life balance
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Summary:Traditional gender ideology, which refers to individuals’ expectations for the gendered segregation between work and family responsibilities, is a well-documented predictor for marital quality. Using three annual-wave, dyadic data from 240 Chinese dual-earner heterosexual couples surveyed during the early years of their marriage, we (a) examined how husbands’ and wives’ endorsement of traditional gender ideology interact with each other to predict marital quality and (b) tested work-to-family and family-to-work conflict as potential mediators to delineate the mechanisms via which traditional gender ideology shapes marital quality. We found that, among couples in which wives endorsed weaker traditional gender ideology at Wave 1, husbands’ stronger endorsement of traditional gender ideology at Wave 1 predicted lower levels of husbands’ marital quality at Wave 3 via higher levels of husbands’ family-to-work conflict at Wave 2. Further, husbands’ stronger endorsement of traditional gender ideology at Wave 1 predicted higher levels of their own work-to-family conflict at Wave 2 and their wives’ family-to-work conflict at Wave 2. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the discrepancy between two partners’ endorsements of traditional gender ideology in practice work to promote marital well-being. Furthermore, our findings suggest the necessity of promoting husbands’ endorsement of less traditional gender ideology for improving marital well-being in contemporary Chinese society.
ISSN:0360-0025
1573-2762
DOI:10.1007/s11199-020-01125-1