Men's Retirement and Marital Quality.

Using longitudinal data from a national sample of married persons, we exploit a wide range of contextual factors that may influence the effect of retirement on marital quality. Characteristics of the husband's job, the division of labor, health, social support, and marital quality are preretirement factors found to affect the influence of retirement on marital quality. Leaving a high-stress job improves marital quality, whereas factors signifying gender role reversals, poor health, and reduced social support lower marital quality Changes that accompany retirement involving role reversals and decreased social support lower marital quality as did the amount of change in the individual's life. Retirement has a more powerful and pervasive influence on marital quality than prior research suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]