Despite the interest paid to the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction (JSLS) there is no firm consensus on the nature of the relationship. In this paper I analyze a sample of 652 men and 552 women who took the MIDUS survey at two time points (1995-6 and2004-5) using structural equation modeling. The results indicate a significant relationship in both the reciprocal and cross-lagged models but they do not overwhelmingly confirm the existence of one singular explanation for the JSLS relationship, which indicates some variability in the relationship. I find positive and significant relationships in the reciprocal models, a negative relationship for the men in the cross-lagged models, and a non-significant relationship for the women in the cross-lagged model. These findings suggest that there are multiple explanations for the JSLS relationship and gender may give us some insight into the underlying mechanisms that determine the JSLS relationship
