Marital Relationships in Late Adulthood: Synchronous versus Asynchronous Couples

Abstract

The article presents a study on marital relations in late adulthood, conducted among a sample of 469 Israeli couples, who were divided into four groups based on occupational status and spousal timing of retirement. Two of the groups were categorized as synchronous: pre-retired couples (both partners are close to retirement); and retired couples (both partners are retired), and two of the groups were categorized as asynchronous: employed husband/retired wife and retired husband wife/employed husband. Differences between the groups were examined in three areas: Division of tasks in the home; marital power relations; and quality of marriage. Regarding division of tasks in the home, feminine tasks were usually more egalitarian among retired couples and retired husbands/employed wives than among pre-retired couples and employed husbands/retired wives. In addition, synchronous-retired couples were found to be more egalitarian than synchronous-pre-retired and asynchronous employed husbands/retired wives with regard to general tasks, while masculine tasks were usually carried out by husbands in all four groups. With respect to quality of marriage, the pre-retired couples expressed more marital complaints than did the retired couples, while no differences were found between either of the asynchronous groups. Nonetheless, marital power relations were generally egalitarian in all four groups.