Wives Earning More Than Husbands Linked To Rising Mental Health Diagnoses In Couples
Wives Earning More Than Husbands Linked To Rising Mental Health Diagnoses In Couples
Women becoming the breadwinner of the family can result in a higher likelihood of mental health issues for both husbands and wives, research from Durham University Business School reveals. The study, conducted by Dr Demid [...]
The study, conducted by Dr Demid Getik, explores how mental health is related to income make-up within couples by examining the link between annual income rises for women and the number of clinical mental health diagnoses over a set period of time.
The study finds that as more women take on the breadwinner role in the household, the number of mental health related incidences also increases.
As wives begin earning more than their husbands, the probability of receiving a mental health diagnosis increases by as much as 8% for all those observed in the study, but by as much as 11% for the men.
Oh for fucks sake. No wonder this study is ridiculous. It's an economist trying to make inferences on mental health. The only actual data he had is a correlation in mental health diagnoses and women earning significantly* more. (Number not defined)
He has no evidence for causation. He does no work to get rid of confounding factors like toxic masculinity's famous dislike of therapy. He just sees a rise in the pure number of diagnoses and says women earning more is bad for the mental health of both people in a marriage. He doesn't even bother to check what the diagnoses are, or look for any kind of severity. For all we know the finding here could be that women who earn more and men who are willing to be with them seek counseling earlier than couples where the man makes more.
This is shit science.
Yep. The guy got a large publicly available dataset (or one his university had access to) and mined it for interesting results to get a publication.
[Translation: Correlation does not equal causation.]
Perhaps households where women earn more money are also made of people where the male partner feels more comfortable seeking mental health resources. Or perhaps they have better insurance and can afford it.
I would suggest that "Wives earning more than husbands" isn't the issue so much as "Cost of living is outpacing household earnings and men have been conditioned through generations of patriarchy to believe this is a personal failing rather than a broad economic shift".
If your wife is bringing in seven figures, I doubt the husband will lose much sleep. But if you're looking at a $30k paycheck to your wife's $40k paycheck, and you both acknowledge the total isn't enough to live on, there's a lot of anxiety to go around in that situation.
Agreed. I don't think it's about wives earning more than their husbands at all.
Yes, the link is this:
When all the adults in the household have to work 40+ hours a week, plus commute, plus all the adulting...they get sad since this is fucking toxic.
Also no one has time for civics.
Also no one has time to parent, so the kids are sad too.
If we're looking at mental health problems, lets look here first.
You missed manly man not manly enough and now sad too.
You're right, patriarchal demands are toxic on men too and that's where the stress comes from.
Could have said that instead of being dismissive about it though.
Was talking to a cute girl at a New Years Eve party, and it came out that while I made a nice amount for doing very little work, she made even more but had to do a lot of work. I went straight to daydreaming about being a stay-at-home Dad so hard I almost fell off my chair.
Dudes, more money means more money, why on earth would having more money upset you???
I'm willing to bet it's selection bias. They have more time for therapy and openness to the idea. It's one of those studies that just looks at the numbers at the top of everything. X couples got divorced, Y people sought counseling, etc.
The most they can say is there's an increased correlation in seeking mental help.
more money is not the goal of a long term relationship or at least, ought not be. I hope this person had other attractive qualities in addition to freeing you from working.
well, I mean, she was a cute girl with a steady job, so, already got one up on the ol' ex 🤷♂️
Any chance this correlates with finally being able to afford mental health care?
This guy understands how the world works.
The study focused on heterosexual Swedish couples of working age who married in 2001 and whose individual incomes measured at just above or just below the equal earnings threshold.
I wouldn't have thought mental health care was inaccessible due to cost in a country like Sweden.
It's not always free in scandinavialand. If you have a referral from a doctor due to a mental illness or the like, it's probably covered. But if you seek therapy out if own initiative you probably have to pay out of pocket.
Source: As a scandinavian I looked into it once, but upon noticing the hourly rate I figured that it would probably cause more mental distress than it would solve.
It's not free, but it's not expensive either, max of around $250 a year for all healthcare. But mental health care in Sweden is abysmal, if you're lucky they'll give you 12 sessions with a psychologist who is apathetic to your issues and then let you go, because they seem to see it as something that once your sessions are done, should be fixed.
This in a country rife with social isolation, months of dark and cold, hobbies that are too expensive to do and a generally unhealthy society.
Please Lord let me find a woman that makes the same as me and I'll happily retire a Pinterest mom and support her career. I love my kid, my home, my time, my flexibility, optimizing systems with cart blanche..
Society needs to normalize households women being successful.
I wanna be a house husband so bad yo I'd be so good at it I can cook and clean good enough to please anyone's grandma and I can manage a household like a pro
Lemme stop working lemme decorate a fucking great room and meal prep for my loved ones FUCK
My only problem with this personally is what if something terrible happens and the wife is no longer in the picture. Then, my house husband skills wouldn’t help me land a decent paying job.
Welcome to the reality of every stay at home mom ever
"How about I earn another $250k and we DINK our way across the globe?"
Go on......
Seriously though, I’d be absolutely fucking fine if I was a househusband.
It's not just the men suffering from this.
I've experienced a man in my life being really fucking salty and super dickish about my successful career. It isn't a husband or SO, but my stepfather. The man who, until recently, has been a great father figure.
I can't talk about work around him without his mood immediately souring. Idk if he's jealous that I have some disposable income and that I am making a little less than he is and I'm only 3 years into my career as opposed to his 25, but it's really discouraging.
Finances are very tight for him and my mother and it's almost entirely his fault because he is terrible with money. It's really sad to see him act this way. According to my mom, he has bitched to my grandma (his mom) about me taking up horseback riding and doing things with my new friends because it can be expensive. My grandma yelled at him over it and said that me doing new things and socializing is very good and she supports it. Idk why he thinks my finances are his business either. Ugh. The man is so frustrating.
Sorry for ranting. Guess I really needed to get all that out lol.
Well I hope there was some catharsis to your comment! That sucks you're being subjected to it. Good for grandma having your back!
This is really sad, tbh.
I personally would be freaking stoked. Would love to be a stay at home hubs, too.
It's genuinely upsetting. The option to be a house wife/husband is becoming rarer. Everyone needs to work to provide enough for the household. House hubbies are lucky men.
Dude, me too, and I would kill at it.
Sadly, based on skills and the job market where we're at, I can make more working.
oh yeah but I would not want that much pressure on my wife. Would want to make enough to at least get us by in a pinch.
i want my wife to earn more than me; she sure deserves it. she has a higher education and a job that actually matters to humanity. i have a desk job that makes computers go beep. its absurd how low her pay is :(
I'm in the same boat. I happen to earn more, but not really through my own education/merit/worth to society - just by virtue of the industry I work in and that I can also make computers go beep sometimes.
For a while, my wife did earn more than me, and that was fine. My job was easier, so I did more housework and took some of the stress off her.
Imo it's wild to be upset that you are earning more as a team just because the person earning the most on the team is a woman. Patriarchy is a hell of a drug
Wow, you and me have the same life it seems. My wife went to college, has her masters and 1 year shy of getting her PHD. and is a special education teacher making nothing crazy. I have no school and I am an IT admin and recently moved to networking and make only slightly more. She thinks I will be someone who cares that she makes more than me, and I say why? Why would I want us to have a harder time than we already have now? Please make more, make a lot more if you can! We only benefit more with peace of mind, I can care less who it comes from.
Some decent news is they work in steps so every year they are guaranteed a raise and she's around step 15 of 20 which after looking at the steps the first 13 are awful and now the next 5 years are huge. Like so big that each year is basically the equivalent of the past 13 combined. So, considering how stagnant I've been, she will pass me by a decent amount within the next 5 years.
For men, mental health issues that arose as female earnings increased were more likely to be related to substance-related concerns, whereas women were more likely to experience neurotic and stress-related disorders.
I'm not convinced of a causative relationship here (well, at least for the men, it makes sense that working more increases stress on the women's side). It's possible that the woman became the higher earner because of the man's existing substance abuse problem, and/or that the woman becoming a higher earner allowed the man to seek help for the problem.
It's also possible that the substance abuse problem developed after the woman became the higher earner, though I'm not sure why that would happen.
They can afford it now?
Unlikely in Sweden
It’s possible that the woman became the higher earner because of the man’s existing substance abuse problem, and/or that the woman becoming a higher earner allowed the man to seek help for the problem.
It’s also possible that the substance abuse problem developed after the woman became the higher earner, though I’m not sure why that would happen.
I think those are two fair bits of speculation that warrant further study and/or reporting.
It's also possible that the men were self medicating instead of seeking help for underlying conditions.
are dudes really upset over this? grow up! jesus.
"women have a higher chance to develop eating disorders when consuming more social media"
are gals really upset over this? grow up! jesus
maybe instead of judging the individual we should look at how traditional societal expectations about gender interact with modern capitalist society and realize that what may have worked to some degree 100 years ago can no longer work today
what may have worked to some degree 100 years ago can no longer work today
Not because there's a shortage of consumer goods or real estate or daylight hours. Because there's a shrinking pool of gainful employment and steadily rising costs of living. These are entirely engineered problems, with low wage service sector and gig-work jobs eclipsing higher wage jobs that can sustain a household on a single income.
Yeah lmao people with mental health issues should just get over it
This study doesn't actually have the data to conclude that. It could simply be these relationships are highly correlated with people who are secure enough to know that seeking therapy is healthy.
Maybe this happens because the woman who earns more often emasculates her husband with snide remarks or jabs. Unlike the other way round where men are expected to earn more than their spouse otherwise they're "less of a man".
Maybe that's contributing to the higher mental health issues.
Specifically on women's mental health deteriorating in this situation, often this can occur when she's still expected to pick up the majority (or all) of domestic labor in addition to her well-paying job. Women are still largely expected to "do it all" by not only their partners but by society. If you're not a perfect businesswoman, mother, and domestic servant all in one all the time, well you're failing your spouse, your children, your boss, your identity as a woman, etc. Women don't just need their male partners to step up for them in labor alone, but also to reevaluate their social role that they are propagating through their (in)actions. What are you teaching your kid if mom is the only one who cooks dinner? Or cleans regularly without reminders? Or keeps track of doctor's visits, field trips, etc?
💯
I was curious on that too. I think just saying they're more stressed feeds into the "You little ladies don't really like working, makes that brain hurt" rhetoric.
Men that are upset that their wives out-earn them are missing the point of marriage. The point of marriage isn't him vs her, its the two of you together against the world. If she is earning more than him, then that benefits him too because he's part of the marriage.
I'm constantly astonished when I hear of men that are upset by their wives out-earning them. Some of these men have even sabotaged their wife's work or changed the circumstances at home preventing her from continuing in the job where she out-earns him. My only hope for these women is they realize their husband's love is conditional on him being dominant over her, and that she seeks out a better future where she can be her best self.
Yup I remember hearing this for the first time talking to a co-worker. He would never date anyone making more than him in $. I was so confused cause I'm happy my wife makes more $ than me. Which is the reason I went back to school cause I wanted to help with contribute more. I see my wife as an equal and nothing less. We do the same amount of work around the house and cook and all that. Why marry if you do not see your partner as an equal being.
My other coworkers were confused as well. Guy had weird values when it came to women.
I would guess those men are afraid the woman will curtail the man's spending, take control of financial desicions, make larger choices about their lives, and have free will over various entertainment and social activities. Because that's what he'd do with reversed roles. It's fear by projection. Throw in gaslighting and obstruction and I feel like I know the demogrqphic afraid of underearning.
There goes the patriarchy hurting men again.
Gotta add that my wife makes more than me and I’m sure glad she does.
The patriarchy hurts everyone, just in different ways.
Men who are uncomfortable with their wives earning more money are also probably more prone to feeling some stigma around addressing their own mental health issues
My wife easily does 80% or more of the housework. She makes less than half what I do. The thing is, she only works 40 hours or so a week compared to my 60 or so. I'm not glorifying my overwork, I hate that I work so much. I'm also out of town during the week days more than half the time.
I would be thrilled if she made more than me. We could hire a cleaning service and we would be so happy. This shit is insane and probably bad science.
It keeps coming up and 'experts' profess this occasionally. I'm too lazy to check the actual science, so I'll never know.
Been divorced since forever, and with age comes wisdom. I think it would be fantastic if I had a high earning wife. Really..
This has to depend on the guy. My ex, he always made less $ than me because I went to college after having kids and got a better job, then asked him if he wanted to do the same he said no, and we made enough as long as we both worked, it wasn't anything we really thought about, only about hours worked by each of us. Now when he was unemployed it all went to hell, but not as long as he worked at all. I valued his work, not the wage.
My husband, he wants to make more than me but sees it as a challenge, he wants me to make more money, because it would motivate him to make more money, he just wants us to have more money. He is very happy for me to succeed, and I'm valued for contributions at home and making money, and (critically important) he does as much as me around the house, and our busy work seasons aren't at the same time so we are able to support each other during those months. I do think it's a sexist thing (he does too but still feels it) but don't actually care, it works fine for us in practice.
My SO teaches religion parttime and makes more than I do working fulltime in IT. Power to her. If I wanted the same I should've become a teacher too.
That's quite amazing. Where do teachers earn more than IT?
Religious institutions, apparently?