Marital Adjustment and Work Stress: A Comparative Study of Single vs. Dual Career Couples

Abstract

The current study aimed to determine the relationship between Marital Adjustment and Work Stress among Single and Dual Career Couples and examine the role of Trust and Social Support in this relationship. Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) (Locke & Wallace, 1959), Occupational Role Stress Scale (ORSS)(French & Caplan,1972), Interpersonal Trust Scale (Remple, Holmes& Zanna,1985), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MPSS) (Zinnet&Farely,1988) were used in the current study. It was carried out on a sample of 120 married couples, (single Career Couples= 50) and (Dual Career Couples =70) to ensure the psychometric properties and to test the hypothesis of the study. The data was collected from different cities of Pakistan i.e., Sargodha, Mandi Bahaudin, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Lahore. These tools were administered after rapport building and informed consent of the participants. Results of the study revealed that trust and social support were positive predictors of marital adjustment as the level of trust and social support increases the marital adjustment of couples also increases, however, trust and social support were negative predictors of work stress as the level of trust and social support increase, work stress among single and dual career married couples decreases.