Underemployment: Individual and marital adjustment to income loss

Abstract

Psychological and interpersonal adjustments to income loss were investigated by comparing 25 couples in which husbands were underemployed to 88 couples in which husbands had been continuously employed. Husbands were considered underemployed if they had lost 20% of their annual earnings. Via questionnaires, husbands and wives reported on attitudes and on attributions for their present financial circumstances. Underemployed husbands and their wives were less satisfied with their finances and their marriages than the comparison group. The components of depression and marital dissatisfaction, for under-employed and continuously employed couples, and the importance of gathering data from both spouses, are discussed.