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You can't buy marital quality, can you? A study of the effects of income and its sources on marital quality
Abstract
Using data from the NLSY, this study tests the hypothesis that there is a curvilinear relationship between income and two dimensions of marital quality--marital happiness and marital conflict for married mothers. The curvilinear relationship is hypothesized to be strongest at lower income levels. Alternatively, spline analysis explores the possibility of a threshold relationship. Prior research on the relationship between income and marital quality has had inconsistent findings; early research found a significant relationship while later research has generally failed to find a significant relationship. At a theoretical level, there is reason to believe that income and marital quality should be related. The analysis finds a curvilinear relationship between marital quality and family income, a relationship that does not depend on the proportion of income earned by the husband. Reconciling the results from several analytic strategies, it appears that the sharpest improvement in both dimensions of marital quality occurs between incomes of $0 and \$10,000. Failure to include the poorest group may explain why some studies find a weak relationship between income and marital quality.
Subject Area
Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology|Womens studies
Recommended Citation
Lacy, Naomi L, "You can't buy marital quality, can you? A study of the effects of income and its sources on marital quality" (1997). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9804330.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9804330