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Are “We” Good? A Longitudinal Study of We-Talk and Stress Coping in Dual-Earner Couples

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Abstract

We applied the linguistic approach and a longitudinal design to investigate how dual-earner couples address work–family stress and how they reasoned with communal coping to reduce work–family stress. Although previous research indicated that we-talk may be a marker for communal coping, we argued that gender may differ in the psychological meanings of we-talk. We hypothesized that gender moderated the relationships between we-talk and satisfaction in both work and marriage. Thirty-one dual-earner couples were interviewed about how they coped with work–family stress. The data concerning work and marital satisfaction were collected twice, once during the interview and once 2 years later. The results indicated significant interactions between gender and we-talk in regard to both marital and work satisfaction. Specifically, we-talk that was used by wives increased their husbands’ work and marital satisfaction. In contrast, we-talk that was used by husbands decreased their wives’ work satisfaction. Our findings highlighted that the psychological meanings of we-talk were dependent on the talking context. The applications for reducing work–family stress were discussed.

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Notes

  1. One of the wives of our participants changed from a full-time to a part-time job during the interval of the two interviews. We tried to delete the wife who had a part-time job at T2, and all of the results remained the same.

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Acknowledgments

This research was founded by National Science Council, Taiwan to Tsui-Shan Li (96-2413-H-030-002-MY3, MOST103-2410-H-030-035-MY2) and Ministry of Education, Taiwan to Lung Hung Chen (project of elastic salary for outstanding scholar 2012–2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Family Studies, Fu Jen Catholic University, No. 510, Xhongzheng Rd., Xinzhuang Dist, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Wei-Fang Lin & Tsui-Shan Li

  2. Department of Recreation and Leisure Industry Management, National Taiwan Sport University, No. 250, Wen Hua 1st Road, Kueishan, Taoyuan County, Taiwan

    Lung Hung Chen

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  1. Wei-Fang Lin
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Correspondence to Lung Hung Chen or Tsui-Shan Li.

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Lin, WF., Chen, L.H. & Li, TS. Are “We” Good? A Longitudinal Study of We-Talk and Stress Coping in Dual-Earner Couples. J Happiness Stud 17, 757–772 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9621-0

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