Men are less happy when their wives earn more than they do:

Wealth is health—unless your wife makes more than you do.

A recent study shows that men who earn less than their wives are less happy.

The study, published in the Economic Journal, found that when wives earn more than their husbands, both spouses, especially the husband, have higher rates of mental health problems.

There is a growing trend around the world for wives to become the primary breadwinners in marriages, including among celebrity couples like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

“Globally, the proportion of couples in which the wife earns more than the husband is increasing,” the authors write.

“Since the beginning of this century, this number has increased by about 25% in both the United States and Sweden.”

Although more women worldwide are earning more than their husbands, there is little research on the psychological impact of this issue.

Scientists from Durham University analyzed the link between spouse’s income and mental health among heterosexual Swedish couples who married in 2021 with an average age of 37.

The couples were either observed for 10 years or until they divorced, which was about 20% of the couples surveyed.

The researchers found that “crossing the threshold at which wives start earning more significantly increases the likelihood of receiving a mental health diagnosis,” while husbands’ chances are also higher.

“In the strictest specification, the likelihood increased by about 8% for the entire sample and by 11% for men.”

The analysis also showed that mental health was positively associated with own and spouse’s absolute income, but negatively associated only with wife’s income.

“Mental health is a crucial outcome, linked to many important economic and life outcomes,” the authors write. “In this study, I found tangible evidence that couples’ relative income plays a role in mental health outcomes. plays an important role, even in an ostensibly more egalitarian society like Sweden.”

For men, the increase was primarily driven by mental health diagnoses related to substance use, while for women, the increase was driven by neuroticism and stress-related conditions.

However, the researchers did not investigate potential reasons that may have led to this finding.

“It’s a bit difficult to speculate here,” lead researcher Demid Getik told MailOnline. “One disadvantage of registration data is that it doesn’t tell us as much about people’s perceptions and attitudes as survey data does.”

Getik notes that based on earlier literature, it appears to be because “the male partner in a couple consistently tends to make more money.”

“It’s a bit difficult to say to what extent this preference comes from women or men,” he added. “It’s interesting that in a country like Sweden, which prides itself on its gender equality, you still see this.”