TY - JOUR
T1 - Spousal Breadwinning Across 30 Years of Marriage and Husbands’ Health
T2 - A Gendered Life Course Stress Approach
AU - Springer, Kristen W.
AU - Lee, Chioun
AU - Carr, Deborah
N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was funded in part by the National Institute on Aging (1R03AG42935-1, principal investigator [PI]: Kristen W. Springer). Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Objective: Wives increasingly outearn their husbands, and gender relations theory suggests this arrangement may undermine men’s well-being. We explore how long-term histories of spousal breadwinning may be associated with older men’s self-rated mental and physical health, and risk of nine health diagnoses. Method: Using 30 years of couple-level income data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 1,095 couples), we use latent class analyses to identify six classes that differ with respect to the timing and level of wife breadwinning. We link these classes to older husbands’ later-life health. Results: Classes that transitioned from husband breadwinning to wife breadwinning in early or later adulthood were associated with husbands’ poorer overall physical health and risk of cardiometabolic and stress-related diseases. Patterns persist net of sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, health behaviors, and adolescent health. Discussion: Violating cultural expectations, such as the masculinity ideal of male breadwinning, is associated with older men’s poorer health.
AB - Objective: Wives increasingly outearn their husbands, and gender relations theory suggests this arrangement may undermine men’s well-being. We explore how long-term histories of spousal breadwinning may be associated with older men’s self-rated mental and physical health, and risk of nine health diagnoses. Method: Using 30 years of couple-level income data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 1,095 couples), we use latent class analyses to identify six classes that differ with respect to the timing and level of wife breadwinning. We link these classes to older husbands’ later-life health. Results: Classes that transitioned from husband breadwinning to wife breadwinning in early or later adulthood were associated with husbands’ poorer overall physical health and risk of cardiometabolic and stress-related diseases. Patterns persist net of sociodemographics, depressive symptoms, health behaviors, and adolescent health. Discussion: Violating cultural expectations, such as the masculinity ideal of male breadwinning, is associated with older men’s poorer health.
KW - gender
KW - life course
KW - marriage
KW - masculinity
KW - relative income
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264317721824
DO - https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264317721824
M3 - Article
C2 - 28782397
SN - 0898-2643
VL - 31
SP - 37
EP - 66
JO - Journal of aging and health
JF - Journal of aging and health
IS - 1
ER -