Maternity leave, women's employment, and marital incompatibility

This research investigated the relationship between the length of women's m aternity leave and marital incompatibility, in the context of other variabl es including the woman's employment, her dissatisfaction with the division of household labor, and her sense of role overload. Length of leave, work h ours, and family salience were associated with several forms of dissatisfac tion, which in turn predicted role overload. Role overload predicted increa sed marital incompatibility for experienced mothers but did not for first-t ime mothers, for whom discrepancies between preferred and actual child care were more important. Length of maternity leave showed significant interact ions with other variables, supporting the hypothesis that a short leave is a risk factor that, when combined with another risk factor, contributes to personal and marital distress.