Article
Father Involvement, Parenting Stress, and Marital Satisfaction in Dual Earner Couples with Preschoolers: A Longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model
| e-ISSN | 2982-6845 |
| p-ISSN | 1226-4474 |
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of father involvement and parenting stress onmarital satisfaction of dual earner couples with preschoolers. Longitudinal dyadic data were drawn fromparents with preschoolers from the 5th (2012) to 7th waves (2014) of the Panel Study of KoreanChildren. Paired t-tests, correlations, and structural equation modeling were employed to investigate theactor-partner effects for data analysis. Overall, wives had higher parenting stress and lower maritalsatisfaction than husbands; furthermore, when wives reported as such, their husbands followed the samepattern. While couples with greater parenting stress reported lower marital satisfaction showing significantactor effect, the partner effect was significant only for the negative effect of husbands' parenting stress onwives' marital satisfaction. In addition, husbands' parenting stress had larger effects on husbands' ownmarital satisfaction than the wives' parenting stress. Finally, greater husband involvement in parentingincreased wives' marital satisfaction, which was mediated by wives' lower parenting stress. Theselongitudinal findings suggest that efforts should be directed toward alleviating parenting stress for husbandsas well as wives to promote marital well-being among dual career families.