Domain Satisfaction and Overall Life Satisfaction: Testing the Spillover-Crossover Model in Chilean Dual-Earner Couples

• Main Authors: Berta Schnettler, Edgardo Miranda-Zapata, Ligia Orellana, Héctor Poblete, Germán Lobos, María Lapo, Cristian Adasme-Berríos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: life satisfaction; job; family; food; spillover; crossover
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/20/7554
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

The aim of this study was to examine spillover and crossover effects between job satisfaction, satisfaction with family life (SWFaL), satisfaction with food-related life (SWFoL) and overall life satisfaction (LS) in dual-earner couples. The gender of the couple members was also accounted for in these interrelationships. A sample of 473 dual-earner couples with adolescent children in Temuco, Chile, responded to a questionnaire. Both members of the couple answered the Satisfaction with Life Scale, Overall Job Satisfaction Scale, the Satisfaction with Family Life Scale and the Satisfaction with Food-related Life Scale. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model and structural equation modeling, it was found that men’s LS was positively associated with their own job satisfaction, SWFaL and SWFoL (spillover), as well as with their partner’s SWFaL (crossover). Results also showed that women’s LS was positively associated with their own job satisfaction, SWFaL and SWFoL (spillover), as well as with their partner’s SWFaL and job satisfaction. Different gender patterns were found for job satisfaction and SWFoL. These findings suggest that for dual-earner couples, life satisfaction may not only be influenced by their own individual satisfaction in a life domain but also by their partner’s satisfaction in the same domain.