Father's health in relation to spousal employment

We studied the correlation between fathers' well-being and the number of hours that their wives work outside the home. Two groups of fathers were involved in the study: modern, caring fathers (in this cultural context meaning less than full-time employment outside the home) and more traditional fathers (in full-time employment). It would appear to be true for both groups that the number of hours their wives work correlates negatively with the fathers' well-being both physically and mentally. We compared two hypotheses: does the well-being of fathers correlate mainly with the wife's actual absence, measured by the absolute number of hours that she works outside the home? Or does it correlate more with symbolic factors, measured by the relative number of hours she works (her working hours compared with his), or by her relative share to the family income. Confirmation was found for both hypotheses, but the second, the 'unfulfilled husband' hypothesis had the most support. Finally, it must be observed that the number of hours men work still has a positive correlation with their well-being.