1. Increases in wives' income over time will contribute to increases in marital discord. (Expect strong effect on husbands' report of marital discord.)

2. Increase in wives' income over time will contribute to decreases in marital discord. (Expect husbands and wives to be about the same.)

3. Increases in perceived marital discord over time will contribute to increases in wives income. (Expect marital discord on wives' income stronger for wives than husbands.)

Used data from Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study (1991). This was a 4-wave panel study that began in 1980 with random telephone interviews of 2,034 married individuals (not couples), younger than 55 using the clustered random-digit dialing procedure. Of the people called, 65 % completed the survey, 18% refused, and 17% were unreachable after 10 or more callbacks.

Respondents were similar to national population of married individual

Data does not support either hypothesis 1 or 2. Data does support #3.

More women responded than men. Also, if couples would have been interviewed so a clearer picture between spouses response could have been analyzed (couple-level data). Also gender role attitudes of spouses were not included. The role of social class was not taken into consideration.

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Approximate Word count = 695
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)