Person–Work Mismatch,Retirement Context,and the Progression of Depressive Symptoms Over Mid-Later Years: A Dyadic Analysis of Couples in Enduring Marriages

Abstract

Objectives: This study investigates how person–work mismatch (PWM) and subsequent pre-retirement work circumstances lead to poor mental health in later years for husbands and wives in enduring marriages. Methods: Data from 224 dual-earner couples in enduring marriages who participated over 27 years (1991–2015) in their middle to their later years were used to test the conceptual model. Results: PWM was related to depressive symptoms in middle years, which continued into later years (a cumulative pathway). In addition, PWM contributed to a stressful pre-retirement work context, which, in turn, influenced depressive symptoms in later years (a stress proliferation pathway). Partner effects were also noted between husbands and wives. Discussion: The present study enhances knowledge about how middle-aged couples’ PWM is related to their mental health in later years through their stressful pre-retirement work context with implications for national- and state-level policies.

Keywords

retirement work stress depression life course mental health marriage

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler

N. E.

Rehkopf

D. H.

(2008). US disparities in health: Descriptions, causes, and mechanisms. Annual Review of Public Health, 29, 235–252.

Barnes-Farrell

J. L.

(2003). Beyond health and wealth: Attitudinal and other influences on retirement decision-making. In Adams

G. A.

Beehr

T. A.

(Eds.), Retirement: Reasons, processes, and results (pp. 159–187). Springer.

Bender

K. A.

(2012). An analysis of well-being in retirement: The role of pensions, health, and “voluntariness” of retirement. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 41(4), 424–433.

Bender

K. A.

Heywood

J. S.

(2011). Educational mismatch and the careers of scientists. Education Economics, 19, 253–274.

Berscheid

Ammazzalorso

(2001). Emotional experience in close relationships. In Fletcher

G. J.

Clark

M. S.

(Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Interpersonal process (pp. 308–330). Blackwell.

Brown

(2009). Work, retirement, race, and health disparities. Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 29(1), 233–249.

Bryant

Wickrama

K. A. S.

O’Neal

C. W.

Lorenz

F. O.

(2017). Family hostility and depressive symptoms in middle-aged couples: Moderating effect of marital integration. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(6), 765–774.

Buchanan

Norko

(2011). The psychiatric report: Principles and practice of forensic writing. Cambridge University Press.

Cacioppo

J. T.

Fowler

J. H.

Christakis

N. A.

(2009). Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 977–991.

10.

Carr

Vahtera

Goldberg

Zins

Head

(2016). Occupational and educational inequalities in health-related exits from employment at older ages. European Journal of Public Health, 26(Suppl. 1), 142.

11.

Conger

R. D.

Elder

G. H.

Jr. (1994). Families in troubled times: Adapting to change in rural America. Aldine de Gruyter.

12.

Cutrona

C. E.

(1996). Social support in couples. SAGE.

13.

Dannefer

(2003). Cumulative advantage/disadvantage and the life course: Cross-fertilizing age and social science theory. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, 327–337.

14.

Deniz

Noyan

Ertosun

Ö. G.

(2015). Linking person-job fit to job stress: The mediating effect of perceived person-organization fit. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, 369–376.

15.

Derogatis

L. R.

Melisaratos

(1983). The brief symptom inventory: An introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13(3), 595–605.

16.

Edwards

J. R.

Shipp

A. J.

(2007). The relationship between person-environment fit and outcomes: An integrative theoretical framework. In Ostroff

Judge

T. A.

(Eds.), Perspectives on organizational fit (pp. 209–258). Lawrence Erlbaum.

17.

Elder

G. H.

Giele

J. Z.

(2009). The craft of life course research. Guildford Press.

18.

Enders

C. K.

Bandalos

D. L.

(2001). The relative performance of full information likelihood estimation for missing data in structural equation models. Structural Equation Modeling, 8, 430–457.

19.

Fingerman

K. L.

Bermann

(2000). Applications of family systems theory to the study of adulthood. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 51(1), 5–29.

20.

Foels

Tomcho

T. J.

(2009). Gender differences in interdependent self-construals: It’s not the type of group, it’s the way you see it. Self and Identity, 8, 396–417.

21.

Ganzel

B. L.

Morris

P. A.

Wethington

(2010). Allostasis and the human brain: Integrating models of stress from the social and life sciences. Psychological Review, 117(1), 134–174.

22.

Gilbert-Ouimet

Baril-Gingras

Cantin

Leroux

Vézina

Trudel

Brisson

(2015). Changes implemented during a workplace psychosocial intervention and their consistency with intervention priorities. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57(3), 251–261.

23.

Glymour

M. M.

Errel

K. A.

Berkman

(2010). What can life-course epidemiology tell us about health inequalities in old age? In Antonucci

T. C.

Jackson

J. S

(Eds.), Annual review of gerentology and geriatrics (pp. 77–97). Springer.

24.

Gorin

A. A.

Wing

R. R.

Fava

J. L.

Jakicic

J. M.

Jeffery

West

D. S.

DiLillo

V. G.

(2008). Weight loss treatment influences untreated spouses and the home environment: Evidence of a ripple effect. International Journal of Obesity, 32(11), 1678–1684.

25.

Griffin

J. M.

Fuhrer

Stansfeld

S. A.

Marmot

(2002). The importance of low control at work and home on depression and anxiety: Do these effects vary by gender and social class? Social Science & Medicine, 54, 783–798.

26.

Henkens

van Solinge

Gallo

W. T.

(2008). Effects of retirement voluntariness on changes in smoking, drinking and physical activity among Dutch older workers. European Journal of Public Health, 18, 644–649.

27.

Iacovides

Fountoulakis

K. N.

Kaprinis

(2003). The relationship between job stress, burnout and clinical depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 75(3), 209–221.

28.

Karasek

R. A.

Theorell

(1990). Healthy work. Basic Books.

29.

Kenny

D. A.

Kashy

D. A.

Cook

W. L.

(2006). The analysis of dyadic data. Guilford.

30.

Kiecolt-Glaser

J. K.

Wilson

S. J.

(2017). Lovesick: How couples’ relationships influence health. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13, 421–443.

31.

Kristof-Brown

A. L.

Zimmerman

R. D.

Johnson

E. C.

(2005). Consequences of individuals fit at work: Meta-analysis of person-job, person-organization, person-group, and person-supervisor fit. Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 281–342.

32.

Kristof

A. L.

(1996). Person-organization fit: An integrative review of its conceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 49, 1–49.

33.

Kuh

Ben-Shlomo

Power

J. H.

(2003). Life course epidemiology. Journal of Commmunityhealth, 57, 778–783.

34.

Lee

C. C.

Czaja

S. J.

Sharit

(2008). Training older workers for technology-based employment. Educational Gerontology, 35, 15–31.

35.

Lovallo

W. R.

(2005). Stress and health: Biological and psychological interactions (2nd ed.). SAGE.

36.

Menaghan

E. G.

Parcel

T. L.

(1990). Parental employment and family life: Research in the 1980s. Journal of Marriage and Family, 52, 1079–1098.

37.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(2017). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). (Originally work published 1998)

38.

Myers

D. G.

Diener

(1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6(1), 10–19.

39.

Negrini

Panari

Simbula

Alcover

C. M.

(2013). The push and pull factors related to early retirees’ mental health status: A comparative study between Italy and Spain. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 29(2), 51–58.

40.

Ollendick

T. H.

Shortt

A. L.

Sander

J. B.

(2005). Internalizing disorders of childhood and adolescence. In Maddux

J. E.

Winstead

B. A.

(Eds.), Psychopathology: Foundations for a contemporary understanding (pp. 353–375). Lawrence Erlbaum.

41.

Orth

Robins

R. W.

Roberts

B. W.

(2008). Low self-esteem prospectively predicts depression in adolescence and young adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(3), 695–708.

42.

Pearlin

L. I.

Schieman

Fazio

E. M.

Meersman

S. C.

(2005). Stress, health, and the life course: Some conceptual perspectives. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 46(2), 205–219.

43.

Rakow

Forehand

Haker

McKee

L. G.

Champion

J. E.

Potts

Roberts

Compas

B. E.

(2010). The association of parental depressive symptoms with child internalizing problems: The role of parental guilt induction. Journal of Family Psychology, 25(1), 147–151.

44.

Scroggins

W. A.

Benson

P. G.

(2007). Self-concept-job fit: Expanding the person-job fit construct and implications for retention management. Research in Organizational Science, 2, 211–232.

45.

Shultz

K. S.

Morton

K. R.

Weckerle

J. R.

(1998). The influence of push and pull factors on voluntary and involuntary early retirees’ retirement decision and adjustment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 53, 45–57.

46.

Siegrist

(1996). Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1(1), 27–41.

47.

Sutin

A. R.

Terracciano

Milaneschi

Ferrucci

Zonderman

A. B.

(2013). The trajectory of depressive symptoms across the adult life span. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(8), 803–811.

48.

Szinovacz

M. E.

Davey

(2004). Retirement transitions and spouse disability: Effects on depressive symptoms. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59(6), S333–S342.

49.

Westman

(2001). Stress and strain crossover. Human Relations, 54(6), 717–751.

50.

Wickrama

K. A. S.

Surjadi

F. F.

Lorenz

F. O.

Elder

G. H.

Jr. , (2008). The influence of work control trajectories on men’s mental and physical health during the middle years: Mediational role of personal control. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 63B, S135–S145.