Marital relationships in late adulthood: Synchronous versus asynchronous couples

The article presents a study on marital relations in late adulthood, conduc ted among a sample of 469 Israeli couples, who were divided into four group s 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/r etired wife and retired husband wife/employed husband. Differences between the groups were examined in three areas: Division of tasks in the home; mar ital power relations; and quality of marriage. Regarding division of tasks in the home, feminine tasks were usually more egalitarian among retired cou ples 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 asynchro nous employed husbands/retired wives with regard to general tasks, while ma sculine tasks were usually carried out by husbands in all four groups. With respect to quality of marriage, the pre-retired couples expressed more mar ital complaints than did the retired couples, while no differences were fou nd between either of the asynchronous groups. Nonetheless, marital power re lations were generally egalitarian in all four groups.