Trends in Relative Earnings and Marital Dissolution: Are Wives Who Outearn Their Husbands Still More Likely to Divorce?
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Longitudinal cohort study using survey panel data (PSID 1968-2009)
PubMed 27635418 · doi:10.7758/rsf.2016.2.4.08
What was done
The authors analyzed longitudinal data from the 1968–2009 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to evaluate changes over time in the association between wives' relative earnings (specifically when wives outearn their husbands) and marital dissolution across marriage cohorts.
What was found
The abstract reports directional findings without numerical point estimates or confidence intervals: - Among couples married in the late 1960s and 1970s, wives' relative earnings were positively associated with divorce risk, particularly when wives outearned their husbands. - For couples married in the 1990s, wives outearning husbands was no longer associated with an increased risk of divorce. - This historical change was concentrated among middle-earning husbands and those without college degrees.
Why it matters
The findings indicate that the historical marital instability penalty associated with female breadwinning has attenuated over time, particularly within middle-class and non-college-educated households.
Limits
The abstract provides no sample sizes, effect sizes, statistical test metrics, or confidence intervals. As an observational study of panel survey data, residual confounding cannot be excluded, and the findings are restricted to the US population sampled by the PSID.