Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Underemployed husbands : a profile of hardship and assessment of marital and personal qualities

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/5q47rr13d

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  • Prior to 1986, economic conditions resulted in substantial unemployment, layoffs, and reduced work time. Such conditions produced underemployment resulting in significant income reductions for families. A random sample of a non-metropolitan Northwest community elicited 137 couples from a variety of incomes. Twenty-one of them were found to have incomes reduced by at least 30 percent. Since married men and women experience strain in different ways, husbands were selected for this study. Individual (role attitudes, fear of success, locus of control) and marital (consensus, cohesion) variables are often blended (outcomes) in employment research. Therefore, both marital and individual variables were utilized to determine their relative importance in defining hardship. The purpose of this study was, also, to extend the definition of underemployment beyond income reduction to include marital and/or personal characteristics. Discriminant function analysis resulted in finding three locus of control subscales maximized the difference between the hardship (N=21) and non-hardship (N=116) groups (p<.05). Husbands in hardship were less internal (p<.05) and more oriented to chance (p<.05), while nonhardship men were more internal and oriented to control by others they viewed as powerful (p<.10). Pearson correlations, including all husbands, produced information about interactions. Consensus and cohesion were negatively related to both the belief in control by chance and powerful others (p<.01), with no significant relationship to internality. While internality are typically viewed as conducive to positive coping efforts (and marital quality), they were not related to each other in this study. Therefore, changes in marital patterns are not likely to effect internality. Consensus (p<.01) and cohesion (p<.05) are associated, however, with husbands' belief in chance and powerful others. Belief in control by others characterized the non-hardship group. Increased levels of sharing through decision-making or activities are related to others control (p<.01). Results confirm the multidimensionality of locus of control, and indicate further research is needed using the construct. Also, a profile for wives, spousal comparisons, and further divisions of the large non-hardship group are advised in further exploration of the work-family linkage.
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