The study, conducted by Dr Demid Getik, explores how mental health is related to income make-up within couples by examining the link between annual income rises for women and the number of clinical mental health diagnoses over a set period of time.
The study finds that as more women take on the breadwinner role in the household, the number of mental health related incidences also increases.
As wives begin earning more than their husbands, the probability of receiving a mental health diagnosis increases by as much as 8% for all those observed in the study, but by as much as 11% for the men.
I’m not convinced of a causative relationship here (well, at least for the men, it makes sense that working more increases stress on the women’s side). It’s possible that the woman became the higher earner because of the man’s existing substance abuse problem, and/or that the woman becoming a higher earner allowed the man to seek help for the problem.
It’s also possible that the substance abuse problem developed after the woman became the higher earner, though I’m not sure why that would happen.
Yeah correlation is not causation.
These couples might both work more than the control cohort. Any number of explanations.
They can afford it now?
Unlikely in Sweden
I think those are two fair bits of speculation that warrant further study and/or reporting.
It’s also possible that the men were self medicating instead of seeking help for underlying conditions.