CHANGE IN JOB CONDITIONS, CHANGE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS, AND GENDER - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF DUAL-EARNER COUPLES

Building on the Job-Strain Theory, we estimated three relationships in a random sample of 201 full-time employed men and women in dual-earne r couples interviewed three times over a 2-year period. We first estim ated the main effects relationships between change over time in employ ees' experiences of job demands and job control and change over time i n psychological distress. Then we estimated the interaction effects re lationship of change in job demands on the relationship between change in job control and change in distress. Finally, we estimated the inte raction effects of gender on these relationships. Job control was disa ggregated into two conceptually distinct job conditions: skill discret ion and decision authority. Controlling for other potentially stressfu l job conditions such as pay adequacy, job security, and relations wit h supervisor, as well as trait anxiety (an indicator of negative affec tivity), change over time in job demands and skill discretion, but not decision authority, was related to change over time in psychological distress. Equally, for full-time employed women and men in dual-earner couples, if concerns about having to do dull, monotonous work increas e over time, distress increases; if concerns about having to work unde r pressure of time and conflicting demands increase over time, distres s increases. Finally, neither average skill discretion nor change over time in skill discretion moderated the relationship between job deman ds and psychological distress. Thus, at every level of skill discretio n, high job demands were related to high distress. (C) 1997 by John Wi ley & Sons, Ltd.