Retirement: What Happens to the Marriage

Abstract

The focus of this descriptive study was to examine what happens to the marriage at retirement. The data were to serve as a basis for further investigation toward the creation of a marital enhancement program at retirement. Purposeful sampling was used to identify the 10 couples who were involved in the study. Findings from this study indicated that an effective marital enhancement program at retirement would consider the following factors: changes in roles and identity were significant stressors during this time; the communication of thoughts was more frequent than the communication of feelings; spouses became increasingly aware of their partners' faults during retirement; men appeared to be more satisfied in retirement than their wives; hobbies and time spent together did not change following retirement; children served as important topics of conversation and sources of pride and thought; time spent with children following retirement did not increase; and children were often unaware of the challenges and changes faced by their parents at retirement.