Women's relative earnings and depressive symptoms in dual-earner households in South Korea: Traditional gender role attitudes as moderators

This study investigated the association between relative earnings and depressive symptoms among 578 married women from dual-earning households. We also examined the moderating role of both spouses' traditional gender role attitudes. Women's relative earnings in their households did not directly predict their depressive symptoms. However, there was a significant three-way interaction effect of women's relative earnings and both spouses' traditional gender role attitudes on women's depressive symptoms. Particularly, women with considerably stronger-than-average traditional gender role attitudes reported more depressive symptoms when their relative earnings were greater and when their husbands showed strong traditional gender role attitudes. However, women holding even slightly weaker-than-average traditional gender role attitudes reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms as their relative earnings increased, even when their husbands showed strong traditional gender role attitudes. These results indicate that traditional wives with high relative earnings may feel threatened by the discrepancy between their values (traditional gender role attitudes) and behaviors (high relative earnings), especially when their husbands hold strong traditional gender role attitudes.