The stress of being unemployed and trying to find a job can wreak havoc on anyone’s mental and emotional health, but new research out of China suggests it can wreak havoc on the person’s employed spouse, too.
Maw-Der Foo, Associate Professor of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, studies employee workplace issues including those related to interpersonal relationships.
Foo and lead author Professor Zhaoli Song of the National University of Singapore found ignoring the stresses of an unemployed spouse's job search does not bode well for the employed spouse's job productivity or home life.
"One of the key findings in this study is that couples are better at sharing their burden than helping alleviate it," said Foo.
And that shared burden can have consequences for the employed spouse when he or she goes into the office each day.
"If you feel bad at home there is going to be spillover at work where you will also feel lousy.”
According to Foo, they assumed marital support might help alleviate the stress of unemployment on the family unit, “but it didn't turn out to be the case."
More supportive
He said one of the take-home messages from the study is that organizations need to be more sensitive and supportive when their employees have family members -- particularly a spouse -- who are unemployed.
"Organizations can implement family-friendly policies to help their employees fulfill their family roles, which in turn may increase the employee's productivity," said Foo.
However, in difficult economic times, many organizations may elect to limit some services for their employees, such as couples counseling, due to their cost.
"Couples counseling may fall into the category of company cutbacks now because programs such as these usually don't affect the bottom line until some time down the road. Our findings call for more attention on the family as an integrated system in responding to the unemployment situation."
In the study, which took place in Shenyang, China, each couple turned in a daily report of their distresses. The researchers examined the interaction between the work life and family life of the employed and unemployed spouse.
Since they had responses from both employed and unemployed people, they were able to compare them and draw conclusions.
"For example, the spouse experiencing job stress may reduce his or her marital support to their spouse, which then leads to more stress for the unemployed spouse, who then returns the favor and adds even more stress," said Foo.
He said one of the unique parts of this study is that he and Song studied couples' interactions daily for two weeks, focusing on what is called “the crossover effect,” which refers to a situation when each spouse transmits and catches the stresses of the other.
"We looked at the unemployed person's activities and their distress, but we also looked at the work experience of the employed person and how that also spills over to the family relationship.”
Foo said examining the stress and coping mechanisms among couples facing the problem of unemployment more closely could provide some practical insights to family counselors, psychotherapists and other practitioners who develop family-focused interventions to prevent the breakdown of relationships.
The study, "Unraveling the Stress Crossover Between the Unemployed and Their Spouses," was published in last month's edition of the Journal of Applied Psychology.
