The expansion theory, which maintains that an individual has unlimited energy to expend in work or marital involvement, and the drain theory, which maintains that an individual's energy for work can be depleted by overcommitment to family, compete with each other in explaining the effect of worklife on the adult male's family relationships. To investigate the influence of work factors upon marital adjustment in blue collar males, 40 husbands from traditional families, with a mean age of 33 and a mean marital status of 10 years, participated in the Adult Identity Interview and completed the Marital Adjustment Test. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles was used to make quantitative complexity rankings of their jobs. An analysis of the results showed that, in support of the expansion theory, work complexity, intrinsic work strength, and income were relatively unimportant as independent variables compared to extrinsic work strength and age. Workers who reported extrinsic factors to be important in their work, such as high pay, job security, and pleasant working environment, also reported high marital adjustment. For those who perceived their work to be important for extrinsic reasons, the majority had favorable perceptions. However, the effect of extrinsic work commitment was mediated by age, which also was a positive predictor of marital adjustment. Younger workers were more committed to their work for extrinsic reasons than were older workers. (BL)