Partners' adjustment to older workers' retirement:testing the role of preretirement expectations in a 10-year panel study

Objectives: Retirement is not only an important later-life transition for the retiring individual, but also for his or her life partner. This study aims to improve our understanding of the partner’s adjustment to the retirement of the older worker, by paying attention to the multidimensional nature of adjustment, and by examining to what extent preretirement expectations are predictive of postretirement experiences. Well-established adjustment predictors – i.e. preretirement resources and characteristics of the work and retirement context – are also taken into account. Method: Analyses are based on Dutch three-wave multi-actor panel data, collected between 2001 and 2011 among 724 partners of older workers who transitioned into retirement during the course of the study. Results: Only a minority of the partners reported adjustment difficulties to the retirement of the employee. About 20 percent reported at least some financial problems, 8 percent reported relationship problems, and 10 percent reported problems with shared leisure time. Expected problems in all three domains were predictive of experienced problems in the same domain. For expected financial problems, a cross-over effect was observed: expected financial problems were also predictive of experienced adjustment difficulties with regards to shared leisure activities. Conclusion: Not only the older worker, but also the partner develops expectations on different dimensions about the shared postretirement future, and these expectations are related to postretirement experiences. Retirement counseling may therefore not only be relevant for older workers, but also for their partners, and needs to take the multidimensional character of retirement processes into account

Older Parents’ Cynical Hostility and Their Relationships with Their Adult Children: A Longitudinal Dyadic Study of North American Couples

Older adults’ relationships with their children are often a source of reciprocal emotional and instrumental support, but also of strain. Cynical hostility is a cognitive schema, according to which people cannot be trusted. Previous studies showed that cynical hostility has adverse implications for social relationships. Little is known about the possible outcomes of parental cynical hostility on older adults’ relationships with their children. Two waves of the Health and Retirement Study and Actor–Partner Interdependence Models were used to examine the way spouses’ cynical hostility at Time 1 is associated with their own and their spouse’s relationship with the children at Time 2. Both partners’ cynical hostility predicts his or her own strain in the relationship with the children, and for husbands, their spouse’s cynical hostility also predicts strain. For husbands only, their own cynical hostility is associated with reduced perceived support from their children. Finally, a husband’s cynical hostility is associated with both partners’ reduced contact with their children. These findings illuminate the social and familial costs of cynical hostility in old age, suggesting that older adults with higher levels of cynical hostility may be more susceptible to strained relationships with their children

Hostility and Loneliness in Older Adult Married couples: An Indirect Effect through Friendships

Objectives: Hostility is a cognitive schema according to which people cannot be trusted. It has been shown to affect loneliness within individuals. This study takes a dyadic approach to examine whether hostility affects marital partners’ loneliness. We further explore whether the effect of individuals’ hostility on spouses’ loneliness is transmitted through social relationships. Method: We used two waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N=1065 couples) and an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) model to examine the proposed model. Mediation was tested with the construction of path models and significance levels were reached using bootstrapping. Results: Husband’s loneliness was significantly affected by his wife’s hostility, whereas the wife’s loneliness was unaffected by her husband’s hostility. We further found that the harmful effect of wife's hostility on husband's loneliness was transmitted through the husband’s frequency of contact and strain in his relationships with friends. Discussion: For men, being married to a hostile partner can have detrimental consequences for social relationships and loneliness. A hostile spouse's behavior might deter others from social interactions, especially if friendships within the couple are shared, resulting in greater loneliness. Similarly, a hostile spouse might be less interested in social interactions and discourage their partner’s social endeavors. In line with previous studies, wives are less susceptible to their husbands’ hostility, perhaps due to greater social independence

Subjective Views of Aging within a Couple's Unit

The development and validation of a scale to measure how couples view their joint agin

Partners' adjustment to older workers' retirement: Testing the role of preretirement expectations in a 10-year panel study

Objectives: Retirement is not only an important later-life transition for the retiring individual, but also for his or her life partner. This study aims to improve our understanding of the partner's adjustment to the retirement of the older worker, by paying attention to the multidimensional nature of adjustment, and by examining to what extent preretirement expectations are predictive of postretirement experiences. Well-established adjustment predictors - i.e. preretirement resources and characteristics of the work and retirement context - are also taken into account. Method: Analyses are based on Dutch three-wave multi-actor panel data, collected between 2001 and 2011 among 724 partners of older workers who transitioned into retirement during the course of the study. Results: Only a minority of the partners reported adjustment difficulties to the retirement of the employee. About 20 percent reported at least some financial problems, 8 percent reported relationship problems, and 10 percent reported problems with shared leisure time. Expected problems in all three domains were predictive of experienced problems in the same domain. For expected financial problems, a cross-over effect was observed: expected financial problems were also predictive of experienced adjustment difficulties with regards to shared leisure activities. Conclusion: Not only the older worker, but also the partner develops expectations on different dimensions about the shared postretirement future, and these expectations are related to postretirement experiences. Retirement counseling may therefore not only be relevant for older workers, but also for their partners, and needs to take the multidimensional character of retirement processes into account

Subjective well-being across the retirement transition – historical differences and the role of perceived control

Given substantial cohort differences in psychosocial functioning, for example in perceived control, and ongoing pension reforms, the context of retirement has changed over the last decades. However, there is limited research on the consequences of such developments on historical differences in subjective well-being in the retirement transition. In the present study, we investigated historical differences in change in life satisfaction and positive affect across the retirement transition. We further included perceived control as a predictor of change in well-being. Analyses were based on sub-samples of retirees among three nationally representative samples of the German Ageing Survey (1996; 2002; 2008) and their respective follow-ups 6 years later. Results showed historical improvements in pre-retirement positive affect (i.e., later samples had higher pre-retirement levels). Contrastingly, earlier samples showed a larger increase in positive affect across the retirement transition compared to later samples. No historical differences were found in life satisfaction. Perceived control showed no historical improvement and did not seem to contribute to historical differences in subjective well-being. Nevertheless, we found that the association of perceived control and positive affect increased over historical time. The results showed that the historical context seems to play a role in the experience of retirement, and that it is helpful to distinguish between cognitive-evaluative and affective components of well-being