Self-Employment and Marital Stability

This article contributes to the literature on work-family conflicts by examining the role of self-employment in marital stability. The aggregate trends show that the rise in divorce rate was particularly sharp in the 1960s and 1970s and then the divorce rate has stalled or declined slightly, while the trend in self-employment followed the opposite pattern: the proportion of the labor force self-employed ceased its downward trend in the 1970s and has been rising ever since. It is hypothesized that self-employment might reduce the work-family conflict through several pathways: First, the self-employed work for themselves and so can regulate and adjust their workload. Second, self-employment gives an opportunity of flexible work schedule, and thus can increase marital interaction time. Finally, owning and running a joint business can have a “binding” effect in the sense that spouses who jointly own and run a business share both emotional and financial ties. On the other hand, self-employment can actually increase the work-family conflict by mixing the domains of work with the household. The first and second hypotheses are tested using the National Survey of Families and Households, and data for the third hypothesis comes from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics-2.