There are two long-range goals of the proposed research. The first is to begin accumulating information on how couples adapt to the retirement stage of family life by using data collected from both spouses to create couple indices. The second goal is to specify and refine family developmental theory as it applies to aging married couples.
The specific aim of the proposed research is to examine how couples adjust to the last stage of family life, which is indicated by the wife's retirement. The overall hypothesis is that the wife's retirement affects the marital relationship. Specifically, it is expected that couples in which the wives have retired 1) will be on more intimate terms, 2) will participate in more activities together, and 3) will be more embedded in a kin network than couples in which the wives have not retired. This project will also deal with how an aging couple's marital relationship is affected by previous marital patterns, length of marriage, social class, and each spouse's health. The research will be based on personal interviews with 300 elderly couples residing in a metropolitan community in Iowa. Data will be analyzed at both the individual and couple levels. The paired t-test will be used when comparing husbands and wives on the various dimensions of the marital relationship, and linear structural relations analysis will be performed when examining how the independent variables affect aspects of the marital relationship.
| Anderson, T B; Earle, J R; Longino Jr, C F (1997) The therapeutic role in later life: husbands, wives and couples. Int J Aging Hum Dev 45:49-65 |
| Anderson, T B; McCulloch, B J (1993) Conjugal support: factor structure for older husbands and wives. J Gerontol 48:S133-42 |
