The remains of the workday: Impact of job stress and exhaustion on maritalinteraction in police couples

Ve examined the impact of job stress and physical exhaustion on the physiol ogical and subjective components of emotional responding during marital int eractions between 19 male police officers and their spouses. Couples comple ted 30-day stress diaries and participated in 4 weekly laboratory interacti on sessions. During interactions oil days of greater stress, both spouses w ere more physiologically aroused, husbands reported less positive and more negative emotion, and wives reported less emotion (both positive and negati ve). On days of greater exhaustion, husbands were more physiologically arou sed. All of these findings are indicators of heightened risk for poor marit al outcomes and thus document an emotional mechanism by which job stress an d exhaustion can negatively impact marriage.