M.A. / One of the most significant trends of our time, manifesting world wide as well as in South Africa and affecting family life extensively, is the continuous rise in the rate of married women entering the labour market. The increasing interface between work and family life, within the work/ family spillover model, has led to the conventional belief that female employment, due to the stress within the work-situation, and marital dissolution are causally related. In more recent studies however, researchers are no longer concentrating only on the detrimental effects of the dual-earner family lifestyle, but are increasingly investigating intervening variables which alleviate stress in dual-earner families and which could actually contribute to higher experience of marital integration and quality. As a result of this perspective on family life of the working married woman, the question arose as to what the situation in this regard in South Africa may be. The aim with this research was to determine the nature of the mediating influence of intervening variables on the correlation between the woman's participation in the labour market and her experience of marital integration. Respondents from Johannesburg, East Rand, West Rand and Pretoria were selected by means of purposive and snowball sampling. A total of 300 respondents completed a questionnaire, which included items on biographical information and Likert type questions regarding the respondents' experiences of both family and work related aspects. In order to measure these aspects, eight scales were developed by means of factor analysis and item analysis, namely the respondent's experience of her husband's performance of domestic obligations; her husband's care-taking of the children; her husband's performance of emotion work; her commitment to growth in the marriage; her experience of marital integration; her involvement in her work; her experience of occupational stress; and occupational satisfaction. An analysis was made to determine the differences between groups that can be divided into more numerous discreet categories, by making use of multivariate and one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe's paired comparisons, as well as Hotelling T 2 and t-tests and Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients. Three regression models were developed in order to determine the predictors of marital integration, involvement in work and occupational satisfaction. The following results regarding the family related scales were found: Respondents experience their husbands' performance of emotion work to a greater degree, than their husbands' performance of domestic obligations and care-taking of the children. In comparison with the other scales, the respondent's experience of her husband's performance of emotion work indicated the highest statistical significant correlation with her experience of marital integration. Therefore the husband's performance of emotion work may be considered as a very important variable in predicting the working wife's experience of marital integration. In the case of the correlation between the family related and the work related scales, it was found that, unlike the respondent's experience of occupational stress, both the respondent's commitment to work and her experience of occupational satisfaction indicated a statistical significant correlation with her experience of marital integration. By means of path analysis, it was possible to determine that in both the models for path analysis in the case of marital integration (endogenous variable) and involvement in work (exogenous variable), -and in—the case—of marital—integration (endogenous variable) and occupational satisfaction (exogenous variable),, in the event of controlling for the family related variables, the partial correlations between marital integration and involvement in work, as well as between marital integration and occupational satisfaction, declined. Therefore it may be said that the family related variables, namely the respondent's commitment to growth in the marriage; her experience of her husband's performance of emotion work; her experience of her husband's care-taking of the children; and her experience of her husband's performance of domestic obligations, may lead to an enhancement of the working married woman's experience of marital integration. Knowledge of these intervening variables may not only help the dual-earner family in coping with the strenuous dilemmas, but may actually contribute to a better marital and familial relationship.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3429 |
| Date | 30 August 2012 |
| Creators | Smit, Ria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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