Marital Quality in Dual-Career Couples: Impact of Role Overload and Coping Resources

An explanatory model of stress and coping among dual-career partners examined the influence of role overload on individual coping strategies and relational coping resources as mediators, using marital quality as the measured outcome. Individual coping strategies included problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Relational coping resources included maintenance behaviors, cooperative negotiation, and coercive negotiation. Data from a sample of 226 married, dual-career partners were subjected to a path analysis using a series of multiple regressions. Findings generally supported the proposed model. Results suggest that both individual coping strategies and relational coping resources mediated the stressor effects of role overload on marital quality