Role Conceptions and Morale of Couples in Retirement

Marital role expectations for middle-aged and older men and women

“…Kerckhoff (1965) and Ballweg (1967) reported little such participation among their samples of older husbands, but Lipman (1961Lipman ( , 1962 noted a large amount of involve ment in household tasks by the husbands in his study. Ballweg's (1967) data also suggested that older retired husbands participate somewhat more than older employed husbands.…”

“…Several writers (Ballweg, 1967;Donahue et al, 1960;Friedmann and Havighurst, 1963;Kerckhoff, 1966;Lipman, 1960Lipman, , 1961Lipman, , 1962Morse and Weiss, 1955;Nimkoff, 1962) in fact suggest that the retired husband may aid his ad justment to retirement by replacing his occupational duties with house hold tasks. For example, Lipman (1961:269) stated that an increase in performance of household chores by retired men allows "the creation of a new meaningful and functional role to replace the occupational one.…”

“…The impact of an expanded housekeeper role for the husband on the housekeeper role of the wife and on her sense of well-being has also been discussed (Aldous, 1978;Ballweg, 1967;Bengtson et al, 1977;Cavan, 1962;Crawford, 1972;Kerckhoff, 1964Kerckhoff, , 1966Lipman, 1960Lipman, , 1961Lipman, , 1962. Although there may be some difficulty in initially adjusting to the husband's changed household role, most couples report little conflict from the husband's increased participation in household tasks.…”

“…This convergence may be demonstrated by an increasing instru mentality of older women and an increasing expressivity of older men (Gutmann, 1975;Neugarten, 1968), or it may be characterized by in creasing expressivity and decreasing instrumentality for both men and women (Lipman, 1961(Lipman, , 1962. In her decade review concerning the family of later life.…”

“…Studies of general normative expectations are few (Britton et al, 1961a(Britton et al, , 1951bBritton and Britton, 1972;Bultena and Wood, 1969;Havighurst, 1954Havighurst, , 1957Havighurst and Albrecht, 1953;Neugarten, 1968;Neugarten et al, 1965;Streib, 1958;Streib and Thompson, 1960;Troll and Schlossberg, 1970;Wood, 1971;Wood and O'Brien, n.d.), and investigations of the more narrow area of changing marital role expectations with age are also scarce (Ballweg, 1967;Hill, 1965;Kerckhoff, 1964Kerckhoff, , 1965Kerckhoff, , 1966Lipman, 1960Lipman, , 1961Lipman, , 1962Silverman and Hill, 1967). Thus little is known about the extent to which this role is differentiated on the basis of sex, and the ex tent to which it is discontinuous from the role of middle-aged persons.…”