A Profile of Later Life Marriages: Comparisons by Gender and Marriage Order

How Do Women and Men Negotiate Sex in Later Life Relationships? A Qualitative Analysis of Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging

Later life relationships and in particular the role of sex within them, have often been neglected in research due to assumptions of decline and sexlessness. We contribute to a growing body of work which counters these stereotypes by examining sexual scripts within the socio-cultural context of later life relationships. We analyzed open-text comments from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA) collected as part of a self-completion questionnaire. In Wave 6, 1065 participants (M age 67.5, SD 9.6 years) and in Wave 8, 922 participants (M age 69.1, SD 9.01 years) responded to an open-text box question. Across both waves, 38% of respondents were men and 62% were women. The analysis used a coding template developed from existing literature and adjusted to accommodate emerging topics. A gendered analysis of the interrelated topics of relationships, sex and sexuality resulted in themes which illustrate similarities and differences in how men and women negotiate sex in later life relationships. The findings confirm that sex remains integral to intimacy in later life relationships for many men and women. However, they also demonstrate that norms of age and gender interact to shape sex and relationship practices in later life. These norms limit some people's experiences, for example, preventing them from seeking new relationships, as well as creating challenges for intimacy in partnerships. These findings extend the theoretical understanding of relationships and sex in later life.

A Cohort Comparison of Midlife Marital Quality: A Quarter Century of Change

Marital quality has been declining among recent cohorts, but whether this pattern characterizes middle-aged and older married adults is largely unknown. The doubling of the divorce rate among persons over the age of 50 years foretells poorer quality marriages for today's midlife adults than a generation ago. Combining data on married individuals aged 50-65 years from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) and the 2013 Families and Relationships Study, we conduct a cohort comparison of five dimensions of midlife marital quality. Today's older adults report more marital disagreement and instability as well as less fairness and interaction with their spouses than their counterparts did a generation ago. The two cohorts report comparable levels of marital happiness. Consistent with the upward trend in divorce during the second half of life, the quality of midlife marriages appears to have declined over the past quarter century.

The association between relationship strain and emotional well-being among older adult couples: the moderating role of social connectedness

OBJECTIVES

The present study examines the moderating role of social connectedness (i.e. closeness, talk frequency, social network size, and neighborhood social ties) in the association between one's own and spouse's relationship strain and emotional well-being (i.e. depressive symptoms, happiness, and loneliness).

METHOD

Married couples (N = 865) were drawn from the second wave of the National Social, Health, and Aging Project. One Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) and one Actor Partner Interdependence Model with Moderation (APIMoM) were conducted.

RESULTS

In terms of actor effects, relationship strain was associated with all emotional well-being outcomes. Wives' and husbands' greater relationship strain was associated with spouses' loneliness. Only wives' greater relationship strain was associated with her husbands' higher level of depressive symptoms and no partner effects were found for happiness. In six instances, social connectedness factors helped to ameliorate the association between self/spouse relationship strain, depressive symptoms, and happiness. However, wives' greater neighborhood social ties amplified the association between wives greater relationship strain and husbands' greater depressive symptoms. We did not find that social connectedness factors moderated the associations between self/spouse relationship strain and loneliness.

CONCLUSION

Even in late life marriages, marital strain is associated with less happiness and greater depressive symptoms and loneliness. Practitioners addressing emotional well-being may need to pay attention to spousal perceptions of relationship strain and social relationships external to the marital relationship when working with heterosexual couples. Efforts throughout the life course should be made to ensure connections with diverse types of social networks.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2021.1910786.

Families in Later Life: A Decade in Review

Later-life families encompass the legal, biological, romantic, and kin-like relationships of persons ages 65 and older. Research on older families has flourished over the past decade, as population aging has intensified concerns regarding the capacities of families to care for older adults and the adequacy of public pension systems to provide an acceptable standard of living. Shifting patterns of family formation over the past half-century have created a context in which contemporary older adults' family lives differ markedly from earlier generations. Decreasing numbers of adults are growing old with their first and only spouse, with rising numbers divorcing, remarrying, forming non-marital romantic partnerships, or living single by choice. Remarriage and the formation of stepfamilies pose challenges and opportunities as older adults negotiate complex decisions such as inheritance and caregiving. Family relationships are consequential for older adults' well-being, operating through both biological and psychosocial mechanisms. We synthesize research from the past decade, revealing how innovations in data and methods have refined our understanding of late-life families against a backdrop of demographic change. We show how contemporary research refines classic theoretical frameworks and tests emerging conceptual models. We organize the article around two main types of family relationships: (1) marriage and romantic partnerships and (2) intergenerational relationships. We discuss how family caregiving occurs within these relationships, and offer three promising avenues for future research: ethnic minority and immigrant families; older adults without close kin ("elder orphans"); and the potentials of rapidly evolving technologies for intergenerational relationships and caregiving.

A National Portrait of Stepfamilies in Later Life

Objectives

Scholars have documented increases in the prevalence and complexity of stepfamilies earlier in the life course, but no one has systematically investigated U.S. stepfamily structure in later life. Guided by a family systems approach, we described the prevalence and composition of later-life stepfamilies.

Method

The analysis was based on 6,250 married and cohabiting couples participating in the 2012 Health and Retirement Study. We identified the prevalence of later-life stepfamilies, decomposed stepfamily structures, and compared the sociodemographic characteristics and relationship quality of the couples in stepfamilies with those in married families (with only joint children and no stepchildren), paying attention to differences between married and cohabiting stepfamilies.

Results

Roughly 40% of middle-aged and older couples with children were in stepfamilies. Of all stepfamilies, 86% were married couples and 14% were cohabiting couples. Cohabiting stepfamilies more often included children from both partners' previous relationships, but couples in married stepfamilies more often had joint children. Cohabiting stepfamilies appeared to be the most socially and economically disadvantaged, followed by married stepfamilies, and lastly married families. Despite these compositional differences, partner relationship quality was largely similar across married families, married stepfamilies, and cohabiting stepfamilies.

Discussion

This study underscores the high prevalence and complexity of later-life stepfamilies and foregrounds the urgency of additional research on this topic.