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Work Hours Affect Spouse’s Cortisol Secretion—For Better And for Worse

From the University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland (P.K.); Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (C.H.); Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany (M.S.).

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Petra Klumb, Department of Psychologie, University of Fribourg, Rue de Faucigny 2, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. E-mail: petra.klumb{at}unifr.ch

Objective: In a sample of 52 German dual-earner couples with at least one child under age 5, we examined the bodily costs and benefits of the amount of time each spouse spent on productive activities.

Methods: Diary reports of time allocated to formal and informal work activities were analyzed according to the Actor-Partner Interdependence model.

Results: Hierarchical linear models showed that each hour an individual allocated to market, as well as household work, increased his or her total cortisol concentration (by 192 and 134 nmol/l, respectively). Unexpectedly, the time the spouse allocated to paid work also raised an individual’s total cortisol concentration (by 64 nmol/l). In line with our expectations, there was a tendency for the time the spouse allocated to household work to decrease the individual’s cortisol concentration (by 81 nmol/l).

Conclusions: This study contributes to the body of evidence on the complex nature of social relationships and complements the literature on specific working conditions and couples’ well-being.

Key Words: cortisol secretion • marriage • partner effect • quantitative workload

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Ditzen, C. Hoppmann, and P. Klumb Positive Couple Interactions and Daily Cortisol: On the Stress-Protecting Role of Intimacy Psychosom Med, October 1, 2008; 70(8): 883 - 889. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]