Work-Hour Trajectories and Depressive Symptoms Among Midlife and Older Married Couples

Abstract

Life course theories highlight the importance of understanding psychological health of aging individuals in context. Work and marriage are influential contexts in later life that are increasingly relevant because both spouses of many households work and individuals are delaying retirement. Although there is extensive literature on predictors of depressive symptoms, incorporating life course histories of work and social contexts has been a critical omission in the aging and health field. This study identifies couples' work trajectories as a function of husband's and wife's weekly work hours and examines the link between couple work-hour trajectory membership and individual depressive symptoms. Data are from 1641 married couples who participated in the 1998-2012 waves (ages 51-89) of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Findings revealed six distinct subgroups of work-hour trajectories among couples and that membership in these subgroups was associated with depressive symptoms. Retiring husbands with wives who continued to work and wives who worked minimally throughout the years (regardless of whether their husbands worked or retired) reported more depressive symptoms than other subgroups. These results suggest that work trajectories themselves, beyond current health status, may carry differential psychological health risk. Moreover, several sociodemographic and life course factors in 1998 were significant predictors of trajectory membership. These findings provide insight into midlife factors that may influence work trajectories (and the potential health risk) through to older adulthood. They suggest that a life course examination of work and social contexts is needed for a greater understanding of individual and couple health development.

Employment over the life course and post-retirement social networks: a gendered perspective

“…Women may also have a stronger social motive for working (Thrasher et al, 2016) and could focus more on creating social ties in the workplace and maintaining these ties as friendships (Loe and Johnston, 2016). Women who are involved in the labor market can experience better mental health (Wan et al, 2018), which may also lead to greater social involvement. Working may help women form multiple roles and interests, which can translate into richer social lives that include varied confidants (Barnett and Hyde, 2001).…”

The Impact of Financial Pressure on the Association between Employment and Depressive Symptoms for Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…Evidence from systematic reviews across countries find that while retirement is associated with beneficial effects on mental health [4], older adult employment is associated with lower mortality risk [5]. Also, amongst older adults, depressive symptoms are not associated with employment status [6], as seen through country-specific studies, including for the United States, Chile, China, Korea, and Singapore [7][8][9][10][11][12]. This evidences the heterogeneous effects across older adults of employment on mental health.…”

Overview of the Health and Retirement Study and Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Wan, Antonucci, Birditt, and Smith (2018) focused on a different aspect of work experience –work hours – among married couples and sought to understand how patterns (trajectories) of work hours over time were related to depressive symptoms among both husbands and wives. Wan and colleagues’ results indicated that two groups reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than others: retiring husbands whose wives continued to work, and wives who worked few hours across their lives.…”

“…Collectively, these papers all use the longitudinal data to investigate phenomena over time. Three papers examined various aspects of transitions from work to retirement (Hudomiet et al, 2018; Infurna & Andel, 2018; Sonnega et al, 2018) and other psychological processes over time (e.g., Liu et al, 2018; Wan et al, 2018). In addition to capitalizing on the longitudinal panel design of the HRS, Wan and colleagues made use of the dyadic data to examine both husbands and wives’ levels of depressive symptoms.…”