Retirement the Last Straw in Bad Marriage?

Retirement may not bring couples closer together and could damage a shaky marriage, a study says.

Retirement has no beneficial effects on the quality of marriages among older people, said Gary Lee, a University of Florida gerontologist and sociology professor.

That does not mean retirement is bad, he said, but it indicates that retirement may not add anything to a marriage and certainly will not improve a bad one.

“For an event that is supposed to be a real change, (retirement) has surprisingly few and surprisingly weak effects,” Lee said. “The negative effects are few, but retirement is not going to save a failing marriage.

“Basically, people are the same folk they were before they retired--they’re just not working,” he said.

One circumstance where retirement may hurt a marriage is when the husband retires, but the wife continues to work.

Lee came to these conclusions after he and an associate, Constance Shehan, studied results of marital satisfaction questionnaires from 2,176 Washington state households with at least one resident older than 55.

Respondents were asked to identify their own and their spouse’s employment status, their length of retirement and marital satisfaction.

One of the surprises Lee found was that even after a husband retires, he usually doesn’t assist in domestic chores around the house.

Lee said this may be a reason women report less marital satisfaction after their husbands retire if they are still working, whether inside or outside of the home.

There is also a minority of couples who have problems because the husband retires and then wants to help out more around the house. Lee said that can make wives annoyed and dissatisfied with their marriages.

Lee said while he found that retirement does not add anything to a marriage, there are some steps that couples can take to strengthen their relationship.

Planning may be one thing that will help couples enjoy their marriages more and make a smoother transition to retirement, Lee said.

“One easy thing to suggest from these results is there is a reasonable argument that couples who are both working, who retire at the same time, may find that more beneficial,” he said.