Retirement Intentions and Spousal Support: A Multi

Copyright 1999 by The Gerontological Society of America

Journal of Gerontology: SOCIAL SCIENCES 1999, Vol. 54B, No. 2, S63-S73

Retirement Intentions and Spousal Support: A Multi-Actor Approach Kene Henkens Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), The Hague, The Netherlands.

Objectives. This study investigates the role of the partner in the retirement decision-making process. It determines the extent to which the support and intentions of partners regarding early retirement influence each other, and which partner dominates.

Results. Intentions and support of both partners concerning retirement are strongly related. The results of the 2SLS suggest that early retirement of one of the spouses is the result of influence processes within the household, and that early retirement can be considered, to a certain extent, a household decision. This holds for married men's early retirement in particular. There seems to be no direct causal relationship between a couple's own decision making with respect to early retirement and the retirement behavior of a couple's social network. Discussion. Future research on the retirement decision-making process should focus on the family unit rather than simply on the individual worker, and be extended to different types of retirement behavior.

L

EAVING the labor market before the official retirement age j has become quite common in many Western countries (OECD, 1995). Although it is widely recognized that retirement is a family affair, affecting both the retiree and his or her spouse (Szinovacz, Ekerdt, & Vinick, 1992), most studies still treat retirement as an individual phenomenon: research is primarily focused on individual factors and the impact that these factors have on individuals' retirement processes (Beehr, 1986; Feldman, 1994; Slevin & Wingrove, 1995; Talaga & Beehr, 1989; Leonesio, 1996). Research into the importance of partners in older workers' retirement decisions has focused mainly on characteristics of the partners, in particular on the partners' income (Feldman, 1994), health, and employment status (Talaga & Beehr, 1995). Because retirement has consequences for the partner, one may expect the partner to influence the retirement decision-making process. The partner is not only a source of informal support and affection, but also plays an important role in structuring one's use of time, in monitoring one's behavior, and in the confirmation of behavior (Lee, 1988; Ross, 1995; Waite, 1995). This might even hold more during retirement, when husband and wife are faced literally and physically with one another. Almost no empirical research has been conducted to determine the impact of social pressures exerted by partners on older workers' retirement. The few articles that have studied this issue (Henkens & Tazelaar, 1997; Hwalek, Firestone, & Hoffman, 1982; Skirboll & Silverman, 1992) found that spousal pressures have a significant impact on older workers' decisions to retire. This article takes a closer look at partner support in the retirement decision-making process of married older workers. The focus will be on older workers' intentions to retire early, and on the support of their partners for their retirement. Partners may support the early retirement of their spouses as a result of experiencing the same context. For instance, if an older worker

is in poor health, both partners may be in favor of him or her retiring early. Partners may also influence each other because a couple's context may affect partners differently, and partners make their own individual evaluations concerning the consequences of early retirement. Rather than specifying that older workers' retirement intentions are unidirectionally influenced by their partners' support for their retirement, it is assumed that husbands' and wives' retirement intentions/support are related in a reciprocal way. This study aims to determine the extent to which the support and intentions of partners regarding early retirement influence each other, and which partner dominates. Feldman's (1994) suggestion was followed; thus, data were collected directly from both spouses, rather than studying these issues on the basis of the second-hand perceptions of one marital partner only. Data on 1,052 older employees working in Dutch industry and trade and data on their spouses have been collected and analyzed. This study includes working men and their partners, as well as working women and their partners. Including both men and women provides an opportunity to explore possible gender differences with respect to influence processes between partners in the Netherlands. Early retirement in the Netherlands has been defined traditionally as the complete withdrawal from the workforce. Transition into some kind of "bridge employment," as well as reentry into the labor force by older workers is almost nonexistent (De Vroome & Blomsma, 1991; Henkens, Sprengers, & Tazelaar, 1996; Van Imhoff & Henkens, 1998). Although there are more than 300 different early retirement schemes in the Netherlands, there is relatively little difference in the age at early retirement and benefit levels between companies and organizations in the public and private sectors. In most cases employees have to be at least 60 years of age before they are entitled to an early retirement benefit. Financial conditions at early retirement are very faS63

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Methods. Data have been collected directly from 1,052 older employees working in Dutch industry and trade, and from their spouses. Because it is conceptualized that husbands' and wives' retirement intentions/support are related in a reciprocal way, a two-stage least squares regression analysis (2SLS) is used to establish the specified mutual relationships.

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Theoretical Background To understand the role of the partner in the retirement decisionmaking process, two mechanisms may be distinguished: a development of similar opinions of spouses regarding the older worker's retirement and the direct mutual influence of spouses. This distinction is analogous to the one made by Thompson, McDonald, and Bumpass (1990) with respect to fertility decisions. The same basic framework can be used to analyze early retirement. Similar opinions of spouses regarding retirement may result from couples' similar early retirement context: the financial-economic context of couples, their leisure activities, both partners' health status, the older workers' organizational/occupational situation, and the couple's normative context. Given a couple's opportunity structure, people may perceive and evaluate the consequences of early retirement differently. This may be true for two older workers in different households, as well as for partners within one and the same household; that is to say, the older worker may assess and evaluate the consequences of his or her retirement differently than his or her spouse. Given the individual assessment of the prospective consequences of early retirement, both partners' intentions and support may influence each other directly. Figure 1 offers a graphical representation of this line of reasoning. First, the early retirement context is expected to influence the partners' opinions toward early retirement, resulting in—at least partly—a similar opinion (Arrows A & B, respectively). Differences in opinions can occur because partners may evaluate the consequences of early retirement differently (Arrows C & D). Finally, a process of reciprocal influence between partners may influence their opinions (Arrows E and F). Couples' early retirement context.—Decision making concerning early retirement is influenced by a large number of contextual factors. The less restrictive a couple's context is, the stronger older workers' intentions to retire early and the

stronger the partner support for retirement. Five contextual factors are deemed to be particularly important. The financial-economic context is generally assumed to be one of the most important aspects (Ruhm, 1989). Most married couples pool their financial resources and see themselves as an integral economic unit (Giesen & Kalmijn, 1997; Treas, 1993). Greater financial resources that enable couples to sustain their preretirement standard of living will increase older workers' intentions to retire early, and partners' support for retirement. In retirement, most couples expand the amount of time devoted to shared leisure activities. Couple-oriented activities solidify their identity as a couple and may enhance their quality of life, as well as the quality of their relationship. The number of activities proves to be strongly related to retirement satisfaction (O'Brien, 1981). Vinick and Ekerdt (1991) report that few couples take up totally new endeavors and activities in retirement; they tend to expand the amount of time spent on activities in which they had already developed interest and experience prior to retirement. It may therefore be assumed that the more leisure activities a couple has prior to retirement, the stronger the older worker's intention to retire early, and the stronger the social support of the partner for his or her retirement. In addition, a couple's leisure activities may be constrained if the older worker's spouse is employed (Talaga & Beehr, 1995). The role of health status in retirement decisions has been widely documented: workers with poor health retire earlier than healthy workers (Anderson & Burkhauser, 1985; Bazzoli, 1985; Bound, 1991; Muller & Boaz, 1988; Ruhm, 1989). The health status of the spouse may also influence retirement, assuming that the spouse's illness may require the older worker to engage in caregiving activities. It has been suggested in the literature (e.g., Talaga & Beehr, 1995) that poor health of a spouse may also increase the probability that older workers (particularly men) continue to work, in order to provide financial resources. I do not expect this hypothesis to be supported by these data for two reasons. First, the Netherlands is characterized by a high level of health care via collectively paid health insurance programs. Second, the Dutch disability scheme is such that for those older spouses who are forced to leave work due to disability, thefinancialdrawback is generally limited. In addition, early retirement decisions are influenced by the organizational context (Hayward, Grady, Hardy, & Sommers,

Older Workers' Evaluations

Older Workers' Early Retirement Intentions

Early Retirement Context Spousal Support for Early Retirement Spouses' Evaluations Figure 1. Graphic representation of the models explaining older workers' retirement intentions and spouses' support for their retirement.


vorable in the Netherlands. The gross replacement rates in terms offinalpay is 70% to 85%. For 90% of the schemes, this results in net replacement rates of at least 85% of the last wage, which is much higher than in the United States, for example (Grad, 1990). In recent years, moreflexibleearly retirement arrangements, in terms of retirement age and benefit levels, have been introduced in several industries and in the civil service (for elaboration on the Dutch retirement context, see De Vroome & Blomsma, 1991; Henkens &Tazelaar, 1997; Henkens, 1998). Several studies have been carried out in the United States concerning the retirement timing patterns of dual-earner couples and the consequences for well-being (Ekerdt & Vinick, 1991; Henretta & O'Rand, 1983; Henretta, O'Rand, & Chan, 1993a, 1993b; Shaw, 1984; Szinovacz, 1989,1996). These studies indicate that spouses adjust their retirement to each other, and that they prefer to retire jointly. Joint retirement is more conducive to well-being than situations in which one spouse has retired and the other continues to work outside the home. In many Western countries, however, the number of dual-earner couples reaching retirement age is still relatively low. Given the important role played by partners in determining well-being, this study assumes that the behavior and preferences of the partner have an impact on older workers' retirement decisions both in dual-earner and in single-earner families.

RETIREMENT INTENTIONS AND SPOUSAL SUPPORT

Individual retirement evaluations.—Although the decisionmaking context is expected to have a strong impact on older workers' retirement intentions and their partners' attitudes, both partners also need to make an individual assessment of the consequences of early retirement. The less negatively older workers evaluate the consequences of early retirement, the stronger their intentions to retire early. Their partners also evaluate the consequences of early retirement. These evaluations may coincide partly with the evaluations the older workers themselves; in other respects they may differ. Older workers' early retirement evaluations.—Older workers are assumed to be more inclined to retire early the less they expect to miss financial resources after early retirement. Though research suggests that older workers tend to be overly optimistic about their level of activity after retirement (Beehr & Nielson, 1995), older workers are expected to be more inclined to retire early if they expect to encounter few problems spending the newly acquired leisure time after retirement. Some older workers retire because they expect that quitting work will be beneficial to their future state of health. As such, they balance the desire to spend their retirement years in relatively good health against the advantages (financial and other) of continued employment in an unhealthy work environment (Hayward et al., 1989). Even before health is affected, withdrawal allows workers to remain healthy. It is generally assumed that retirement is characterized by a decrease in contacts with coworkers (Bosse, Aldwin, Levenson, Workman-Daniels, & Ekerdt, 1990; Van Tilburg, 1992) and that this is perceived as a major loss (Braithwaite & Gibson, 1987). Therefore, the more an older worker expects to miss work-related social contacts after early retirement, the less likely he or she will be to retire early. However, their continued employment may not have the support of supervisors in the workplace. Supervisors are deemed to be particularly important because they have control over older workers' employment situations, and they tend to be the ones who define performance expectations and standards (Feldman, 1994; Henkens, 1998; Vecchio, 1993). Finally, the expected consequences for self-esteem also play an important role. Occupational achievement and commitment to the role of worker are among the most important determinants of self-esteem (Reitzes, Mutran, & Fernandez, 1994). It can be assumed that employees who expect that they will lack self-esteem after retirement are less likely to retire early.

Partners'early retirement evaluations.—Three elements are believed to be particularly relevant to partners evaluations of early retirement. First, for the United States, Keating and Cole (1980) suggest that for the retiree as well as the partner, the financial drawback is the most important negative aspect of retirement. Second, partners may anticipate an improvement in health resulting from the withdrawal from an unhealthy work environment (Heyman & Jeffers, 1968; Szinovacz, 1980). Third, though previous research indicates that, for most couples, problems in marital relationships due to retirement are short-term (Vinick & Ekerdt, 1991), the partners' assessment of potential negative consequences of their spouses' retirement are deemed important. This study assumes that partners will be more inclined to support their spouses' retirement if they expect that their partners' retirement will result in few marital problems arising from a division of housework, too much togetherness, and an interference with their partner's social relations outside the conjugal pair (Dorfman & Hill, 1986; Ekerdt & Vinick, 1991; Fengler, 1976; Hill & Dorfman, 1982; Keating & Cole, 1980; Szinovacz, 1992, 1996). It is assumed that the consequences of retirement for older workers' work-related social contacts, self-esteem, and leisure are evaluated by the partner insofar as they have consequences for their marital relationship. It is assumed that older workers' evaluations of the consequences of early retirement for the marital relationship are primarily reflected in older workers' evaluations concerning leisure and self-esteem. Mutual influence of spouses.—Because the retirement of one of the spouses will affect family life, I assume that there will be a tendency within the household toward agreement on retirement, through a process of interaction and exchange of information between spouses. The opinions of one spouse will therefore affect the formation and change of the other's opinions. Three hypotheses may be put forward about the partner who is most influential in this process. Two of the hypotheses concern sex-specific differences (see Figure 2 for a graphical representation of the relationships). The ideas underlying the hypotheses are partly based on research into spouses' desires and joint behavior with respect to fertility (Thompson, 1990, p. 137). First, the sphere-of-interest hypothesis assumes that each spouse is most influential in issues that concern his or her sphere of interest (cf., Thompson, 1990; Corijn, Liefbroer, & De Jong Gierveld, 1996). The partner for whom the decision has the greatest repercussions is more influential. With respect to early retirement this hypothesis implies that the partner who becomes eligible to retire early is most influential. The implicit assumption that retirement is primarily in the older worker's sphere of interest is reflected in the observation that very few studies include the influence of the partner's support. Though this study assumes that early retirement has positive and/or negative consequences for both partners, the sphere-of-interest hypothesis predicts that the spouse who is eligible to retire early is most influential within the household. HI The influence of the older worker's retirement intention on the support of the spouse is larger than the influence of the support of the spouse on the older worker's retirement intention (In Figure 2: a > b and c > d). The influence processes within the household are also dependent on the distribution of resources within the marital relation-


1989). Three aspects are deemed particularly important: physical/environmental demands, job challenge, and job pressure (Henkens & Siegers, 1994,1997; Shephard, 1995). More cumbersome working conditions will increase older workers' intentions to retire early. Moreover, older workers' negative physical or mental states may be expected to affect the functioning of the family (see: Burke, 1986 for empirical evidence) and their partners' support for retirement. Finally, couples' opinions regarding retirement depends on the social-normative context. Leaving the labor market before the official retirement age has become socially acceptable in many Western countries. The social-normative context with respect to retirement differs across the population. In particular, it may be expected that the social acceptability of early retirement increases with the number of relevant others in a couple's social network (friends, family) who have left the labor force.

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ship. The partner who has fewer resources is more dependent on the other partner, and will be less influential in the household. Because the distribution of resources is often characterized by gender-asymmetry, sex-specific differences may be expected (Curtis, 1986; Van Berkel, 1997). Two additional hypotheses may be put forward. On the one hand it may be argued that perhaps the historically most common way of solving marital disagreements, namely the husband's dominance in decision making, also applies to influence processes with respect to early retirement. Assuming that the distribution of valuable resources tends to be in favor of men, this patriarchal hypothesis would imply that the influence of men on their female partners is stronger than the influence of women on their male partners.

H2B Wives' support for their husbands' early retirement is influenced more strongly by their husbands' early retirement intentions than husbands' support for their wives' early retirement is influenced by their wives' intentions to retire early (In Figure 2: c < a). On the other hand, it may be hypothesized that women are the dominant partners in the retirement decision-making process. The marital relationship represents one of the most important support systems on which the retiree can rely in order to adapt successfully to this life event. Not only can a supportive spouse render an older worker's transition to retirement less stressful, retirement also often results in a shift of the retiree's major life interest from work to the marital role (Szinovacz, 1980). The partner with greater social resources may be less dependent on the support and behavior of the spouse and have more power to influence the spouse with relatively fewer social resources. In this line of reasoning, men may be less influential than women (cf., Kulik & Zuckerman Bareli, 1997). Where men often rely solely on their wives as their closest contact, women often report a nonspouse as their closest social network member (Hanson & Wapner, 1994; Lee, 1988). Men appear to benefit more than women from having a partner relationship (Gove & Shin, 1989; Peters & Liefbroer, 1997), men adapt less easily to the loss of a partner (Arber & Ginn, 1991), and having a partner enhances life satisfaction in retirement much more for men than for women (Calasanti, 1996). Men also score significantly lower than women on retirement adjustment if their spouses are employed (Szinovacz, 1989). The adjustment of women to retirement may therefore be less dependent on their partners' support and behavior than men, who are generally more socially isolated (Slevin & Wingrove, 1995). The female dominance hypothesis predicts that, in contradiction with the patriarchal hypothesis:

Female Workers' Early Retirement Intentions

t

b

a i

Wives' Support for Early Retirement

c

d r

Husbands' Support for Early Retirement

Figure 2. Graphic representation of the sex-specific mutual influence of partners.

husbands' supportfor their wives' retirement is influenced by their wives' intentions to retire early (In Figure 2: a < c). METHODS

Data Respondents.—The data were collected in 1995 among older employees working in more than 50 operating companies of three large Dutch multinational organizations. These companies have a total of approximately 55,000 employees in the Netherlands. A mail questionnaire was sent to all employees aged 55 years and older, and to their partners. The older workers were asked whether they intended to use the opportunity to retire early, and information was collected on financial and demographic characteristics, their state of health, the organizational context, the social-normative context, and their evaluation of the prospective consequences of early retirement. The partner was asked whether she/he supported early retirement and information was collected on labor market status, state of health, the couples' leisure activities, and their evaluation of the prospective consequences of the older worker's retirement. Data on replacement rates were made available by the Central Salary Administration of the companies included in the survey.

Response rate.—A total of 1,970 questionnaires were mailed to older workers' homes with a return envelope enclosed. If the employee was married, a questionnaire for the partner was included, with a cover letter from the researcher. A letter of recommendation from the Central Director of Personnel of each organization endorsing participation in the study was also included. A response rate of 78% was reached after two reminders were sent. The response of the spouses was high: 97% of the partners of married workers who participated, responded. No substantial selective nonresponse was found with respect to sex or different operating companies. The data analyzed in this article have been taken from 1,052 complete sets of questionnaires filled in by employees aged 55 to 59 years (746 men and H3A Male workers' intentions to retire early are influenced more strongly by their wives' support for their retirement 306 women) and their spouses. This age category was selected than female workers' intentions to retire early are influ- because there was evidence that most people in this age range had given a great deal of thought to the decision whether to reenced by their husbands' support for their retirement (In tire early, and had begun to make definite plans in this area (cf. Figure 2: b > d). Evans, Ekerdt, & Bosse, 1985). The organizations included in H3B Wives' supportfor their husbands' retirement is influenced this study offer their employees the opportunity to retire early at less strongly by their husbands' retirement intentions than the age of 60.


H2A Men's intentions to retire early are influenced less strongly by their wives' support for their retirement than women's retirement intentions to retire early are influenced by their husbands' support for their retirement (In Figure 2: b < d).

Male Workers' Early Retirement Intentions


The questionnaire contained only closed questions. Overall, the frequency of item nonresponse in the returned questionnaires was low. Missing values were replaced by the sample mean value of the variables, computed from the nonmissing values (Anderson, Baselevsky, & Hume, 1983, p. 456).

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spouses' intentions/support on each other (Arrows a, b, c, and d in Figure 2). If both partners influence each other, both coefficients should be positive and significant, and the effect of the more influential spouse should be larger (cf. Thompson, 1990). RESULTS

Analytic Strategy Because it is conceptualized that husbands' and wives' retirement intentions/support are related in a reciprocal way, singleequation estimation techniques are not appropriate and will produce biased estimates of the specified relationships (Godwin, 1985). The two-stage least squares model (2SLS) used in this study is an extension of the OLS regression model except that older workers' retirement intentions and the partners' support for their retirement are two simultaneously determined, dependent (endogenous) variables. In the first stage, each dependent variable is regressed on all independent variables in the model (couples' retirement context and individual evaluations by the older workers and his or her partner). This is called the estimation of the reduced form coefficients. In the second stage the estimated values of the dependent variables derived in the first stage are included as independent variables to obtain the 2SLS estimates for each equation in the system. Identification in a two-equation system requires that each equation does have one or more unique variables (variables that do not appear in the other equation). In the model, two dependent variables—older workers' retirement intentions and the partners' support for their retirement—are both affected by the couple's retirement context, and each is uniquely determined by each spouse's individual evaluations concerning the consequences of retirement (see Figure 1). Similar effects of the couple's retirement context on workers' retirement intentions and their partners' support indicate that both partners' opinions are influenced by a common factor of the early retirement context. This factor generates agreement between spouses on the desirability of early retirement. If the effects differ, this factor may be a source of disagreement. Mutual influence is represented by the two direct effects of

The results of the multivariate regression analyses to explain the early retirement intentions of older workers and the support of their spouses for their retirement are presented in Table 2. Three models have been estimated. First, OLS regression is used to present the relationships between the couples' context and the dependent variables (model 1). Second, individual evaluations concerning the consequences of older workers' retirement are added to the regression equation (model 2). Third, the results of 2SLS regression analyses are presented to establish the way spouses are influenced by each other (model 3). Couples' early retirement context.—The results of model 1 in Table 2 suggest that older workers' early retirement intentions and their spouses' support are related to several aspects of the couples' retirement context. The presence of dependent children in the household, few shared leisure activities, good health, a challenging job, and a social network in which most people are still active in the labor force are related to a weak desire of spouses for older workers' early retirement. The results suggest that the worker is also influenced by the percentage income drop after retirement (replacement rate): the higher the replacement rate, the stronger the workers' intention to retire early. The partner's state of health is only significantly related to their desire for the early retirement of their spouses. The results suggest that most aspects of the context seem to affect partners' opinions regarding early retirement in a similar way and as such, facilitate agreement on retirement. However, these effects can be spurious due to the omitted effects of individual evaluations and spousal influence. Individual retirement evaluations.—In model 2, both spouses' individual evaluations of the prospective consequences of early retirement have been incorporated in the analyses. The results show that older workers' intentions to retire early are weaker if they perceive the financial drawbacks to be greater, and if they expect to encounter more problems filling their leisure time. Moreover, the perceived consequences of quitting work for a person's state of health is related to the intention to leave the labor force—older workers who expect that retiring from work will be beneficial to their personal health are more likely to have a positive retirement intention. The expected consequences for self-esteem are also important; older workers who expect more problems in this respect have a weaker intention to retire early. Social relations at work appear to be significant, too. The more older workers expect to miss their contacts with coworkers, and the more support they perceive from their supervisors to continue employment, the less inclined they will be to retire early. Model 2 shows that the perceived financial drawback is also significantly related to the support of the partner. In addition, relatively strong effects are found for the expected consequences of quitting work for the older workers' health, and the expected consequences for marital quality. Partners who expect that retirement will have a positive effect on their spouses'


Measures Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, coding algorithms, and wording of the survey questions of the measures. Measures of workers' retirement intentions and spousal support are constructed by summing the standardized and unweighted items (a = .77). Both scales were subsequently linearly transformed into a range from 1 to 10, where T indicates a very strong intention to continue working and ' 10' indicates a very strong intention to retire early. The first-order correlation between the opinions of spouses regarding the retirement of one of the spouses is indeed significant (r = .55). The standard deviation of the intention variable is lower than the standard deviation of the partner support variable. One may assume that these differences reflect less consensus between partners regarding the retirement of their spouses than among older workers themselves. One could also argue, however, that differences in standard deviation of the two scales indicate that the scales are in fact incomparable because of the different wordings of the questions. In the latter case, using standardized measures would be more appropriate. I will use unstandardized measures and discuss the sensitivity of the results for standardization in the Results section.

HENKENS

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Table 1. Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD), Coding Algorithms, Wording of Survey Questions, and Psychometric Properties of All Dependent and Independent Variables (N= 1,052) SD

Context Replacement rate

83.7

5.9

Continuous variable ranging from 68.8 to 96.0

n/a

Income of partner

1.2

1.4

Quasi-interval scale ranging from 0 to 5 thousands of Guilders (NLG 1000 « USD 500)

n/a

0.9

Actual number, ranging from 0 to 6

n/a

2.3

Summed answers to one question concerning 14 leisure activities

Number of dependents Number of shared activities

5.7

.33

State of health employee

4.1

State of health partner

3.9

Job challenge

2.8

Job pressure

2.9

Job physically/ environmentally demanding Friends/family have retired

Evaluations Worker Money

.24

3.0

3.0

Leisure

3.8

Health

2.6

Social contacts work

3.1

.47 1.0

.77 1.2

Wording of Survey Questions

Partners were asked to indicate which activities they pursued with their spouses. The list contained: hobbies, family, grandchildren, watching television, hiking/ cycling/sports, reading, volunteer work, travel/holidays, do it yourself, painting/dance/theater, music, shopping, trade union/union for the elderly/political party, support of parents/family, studies/courses.

n/a

dummy variable, 1 = yes, 0 = no Questions: What is your general state of health? (five answer categories: very good-poor). Do you have recurring health problems (yes/no).

1-item scale ranging from 1 = poor health to 5 = excellent health

Question asked to the partner: What is your general state of health? (five answer categories: very good-poor).

n/a

3-item scale ranging from 1 = job not challenging to 5 = job very challenging

Items: My work is characterized by many challenging tasks (answer categories 0 = no, 1 = yes); The work I'm doing is not very challenging and The work I'm doing has become more and more boring and routine (five answer categories: 1 = completely agree to 5 = completely disagree).

alpha = .71

3-item scale ranging from 1 = low Items: At times, job pressure is so great that it creates job pressure to 5 = high job pressure tensions. At times, there is so much work to be done that I'm unable to do everything well; I often have to do my utmost to perform well (five answer categories: 1 = completely agree to 5 = totally disagree).

.43

dummy variable 1 = yes, 0 = no

.94

4-item scale ranging from 1 = most of the social network active in the labor force, to 5 = most of the social network have retired

.80

alpha = .67

2-item scale ranging from 1 = poor health to 5 = excellent health

.85

1.0

n/a

alpha = .80

n/a

Items asked to both the employee and his/her partner: Most of our friends have stopped working, and Most of my brothers and sisters have stopped working (five answer categories: 1 = completely agree to 5 = totally disagree). [Coding reversed]

1-item scale ranging from 1 = many Question: To what extent would you miss income if they negative consequences, to 5 = few were to retire early? (five answer categories ranging from negative consequences 1 = very much to 5 = not at all).

alpha = .74

n/a

alpha = .76

4-item scale ranging from 1 = many negative consequences, to 5 = few negative consequences

Items: I'm always very busy, even in my spare time; I think I'll continue to be pressed for time once I retire; With so many hobbies, I'll never be bored; If I don't work, I'll get bored, (five answer categories: 1 = completely agree to 5 = completely disagree).

1.2

1-item scale ranging from 1 = negative consequences, to 5 = positive consequences

Item: Early retirement will be beneficial to my health (five answer categories: 1 = completely agree to 5 = completely disagree).

n/a

1.1


Question: To what extent would you miss social contacts if you were to retire early? (five answer categories ranging from 1 = very much to 5 = not at all).

n/a

(continued)


Partner has paid job

.48

Coding Algorithms

Psychometric Properties

M


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Table 1. Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD), Coding Algorithms, Wording of Survey Questions, and Psychometric Properties of All Dependent and Independent Variables (N= 1,052) (continued) M Evaluations Worker (continued) Self-esteem 4.2

Supervisor supports early retirement

Wording of Survey Questions

Psychometric Properties

Coding Algorithms

.77


Questions: To what extent would you miss self-esteem, social status and meaning to life if you were to retire early? (five answer categories ranging from 1 = very much to 5 = not at all).

alpha = .79

Question: How would your direct supervisor feel about you continuing to work after you reach the age of 60? (Answer categories: 1 = my boss would be very much in favor of that, to 5 = my boss would not be at all happy about that).

n/a

3.1

1.0

1-item scale ranging from 1 = supervisor supports continuation of work to 5 = supervisor supports retirement

3.5

1.1

1-item scale ranging from 1 = many Question: Do you expect to encounter income problems negative consequences, to 5 = few if your partner were to retire early (five answer categories negative consequences ranging from 1 = very much to 5 = not at all).

n/a

Health

2.4

1.2

1-item scale ranging from 1 = negative consequences, to 5 = positive consequences

n/a

Marital quality

1.5

Evaulations Partner Money

Mutual Influence Sex worker

.29

.55

.45

Item: Early retirement will be beneficial to my partner's health (five answer categories: 1 = completely agree to 5 = completely disagree).

4-item scale ranging from 1 = many Questions: If your husband/wife were to stop working, to negative consequences, to 5 = few what extent would you expect problems to arise with negative consequences respect to (a) joint leisure time activities, (b) division of household chores, (c) relationship between you and your partner, (d) your social life (five answer categories ranging from 1 = very much to 5 = not at all). dummy variable, 1 = female, 0 = male

Spousal support for retirement

7.9

2.3

2-item scale ranging from 1 = weak support for retirement, to 10 = strong support for retirement

Workers' retirement intentions

7.2

1.4

3-item scale ranging from 1 = weak Questions: Do you intend to use the opportunity to retire early? (three answer categories: 1 = yes, 2 = 1 don't intention to retire early, to 10 = know yet, 3 = no); Do you intend to continue working strong intention to retire early after you reach the age of 60? (five answer categories: 1 = no, certainly not, 2 = no, probably not, 3 = maybe, 4 = yes, I think so, 5 = yes, most certainly); If you were able to choose, at which age would you like to stop working? (continuous variable).

health are more likely to support early retirement. Partners who expect problems with respect to marital quality are less likely to support their spouses' early retirement. Mutual influence of spouses.—Model 3 presents the final model: the 2SLS regression analysis shows which factors influence the opinions of partners and how spouses influence each other. The hypotheses concerning the mutual influence of spouses are tested with a t test for the difference in coefficients from separate subgroup regression analyses (Lewis-Beck, 1993, p. 120). Sex-specific differences are tested by including an interaction term of sex and spouses' intentions/support. The arrows in Hgure 2 are estimated (coefficients: a =.92; b = .24; c =

Questions: How would you feel about it if your husband/ wife were to continue working until the age of 65? (five answer categories, ranging from 1 = 1 would be very much in favor of that, to 5 = I would be not at all happy about that); How would you feel about it if your husband/ wife were to stop working? (five answer categories, ranging from 1 = very positive to 5 = very negative).

alpha = .84

n/a alpha = .77

alpha = .77

The sphere-of-interest hypothesis (HI) predicts that the partner who is eligible for early retirement is most influential (In Figure 2: a > b and c > d). This implies that the influence of the older worker's retirement intention on the support of the spouse is larger than the influence of the support of the spouse on the older worker's retirement intention. The data offer strong support for this hypothesis in the case of the retirement intentions of men and their wives' support (coefficients .92 versus .24; t = 5.41, p< .05), as well as in the case of the retirement intentions of women and their husbands' support (coefficients .66 versus .05;f = 4.10,p