Partnership Satisfaction and Conflict among Czech Couples during the Pandemic-related Employment Insecurity
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociální studia |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | article - open access |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/SOC2022-20990 |
| Keywords | COVID-19 impacts; partnership satisfaction; Gender and Generations Survey; job insecurity; family |
| Attached files | |
| Description | It can be reasonably assumed that the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have taken a toll on family and interpersonal relationships. Previous research has established that job insecurity and financial hardship lead to reduced relationship quality and a higher incidence of partner conflicts. Our goal is to investigate the dynamics of partnership satisfaction and partnership conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic among Czech couples, focusing on pandemic-related employment change and perceived job insecurity. We use longitudinal panel data from “Czech GGS COVID pilot study”, which was conducted in December 2020, and from a follow-up survey organized in April 2021. Our results show that the immediate effects of economic hardship during the pandemic were not as strong and uniform as we expected. Many families apparently had the resources to bear the economic impacts of COVID-19 in terms of maintaining subjective relationship quality and curbing conflict between spouses. The most important conclusion worth further investigation is the gendered nature of these mechanisms. There are contradictory, gender-specific associations hidden under the weak total effects. This suggests that the perception of family life could be very different for men and women in relation to economic circumstances. |
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