The proposed short-term longitudinal interview study of 300 employed men ages 25 to 40 and their employed wives/live-in partners, focuses on the relationship between work-related and family role stress and mental-health outcomes. Building on the investigators' prior research on stress and well-being in women and men, the study extends our understanding of stressors in men's lives to include occupancy of family roles and quality of experience in occupational and family roles--spouse/partner and father. Quality of experience in a role refers to the balance between its rewarding and distressing attribute, and is measured by scales developed previously by the investigators. Family roles, especially their stressful aspects, have been neglected in the study of men; social changes with respect to men's and women's roles make this area of men's lives particularly deserving of attention. Outcome measures focus on psychological distress (e.g., anxiety, role strain, depression); psychological well-being (self- esteem, positive affect) and self-reports of health behaviors (e.g., substance abuse.) Data from the women will be analyzed so as to illuminate: (a) reciprocal effects of partner variables; (b) gender differences; and (c) couples' issues. During the four years of the project, data will be gathered at three points in time, one year apart. Subjects will be randomly selected from two communities in the Boston SMSA, selected on the basis of broad SES distribution and presence of minorities. All subjects will be married or living with a partner; 60% of subjects will be parents at the time of the first wave. Blacks will be included in the sample in proportion to their numbers in the population. Causal analytic techniques, including LISREL, will be used to evaluate specific hypotheses concerning the effects on levels of psychological stress and well-being of job conditions, occupancy of the parent role, and quality of experience in roles. In addition, we will examine the interaction of occupational and family role variables and the moderator effects of such variables as anger and social support. A major focus of the analyses will be to assess gender differences in the models of well-being and distress.
