Turns out bringing home the bacon could be frying you to a crisp.
A survey of a diversity of American couples who’ve been married more than 15 years revealed that as husbands took on greater financial responsibility, their health and psychological well-being declined, according to University of Connecticut sociologists. Furthermore, during years when husbands were the only breadwinner, their psychological well-being and health scores were lower on average than they were in other years.
When the roles were reversed and wives were out-earning their husbands, women didn’t have higher health scores, but their self-reported psychological well-being scores did increase. Interestingly enough, men’s psychological well-being and health also went up as their wives took on more economic responsibility.
According to study author Christin Munsch, the findings could be a positive for both sexes and lead to more couples reaping the benefits of sharing the role of primary family breadwinner.
“Our study finds that decoupling breadwinning from masculinity has concrete benefits for both men and women,” Munsch says. “Whereas men’s psychological well-being and health tend to increase as their wives take on more economic responsibility, women’s psychological well-being also improves as they take on more economic responsibility.”
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