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Impact of Husbands' Involuntary Job Loss on Wives' Mental Health, Among Older Adults

^a Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Michele Siegel, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Nurses Residence 7S16, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 E-mail: msiegel{at}aecom.yu.edu.

Decision Editor: Fredric D. Wolinsky, PhD

Objectives. This study estimates the consequences of older husbands' involuntary job loss for their wives' mental health.

Methods. Using longitudinal data from the 1992, 1994, and 1996 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, multivariate regression models were estimated to measure the impact of older husbands' involuntary job loss on wives' mental health. We created two longitudinal data sets of two waves each to use in our analysis. The first data set, or period, combined Waves 1 and 2 of the Health and Retirement Study and described the 1992–1994 experience of spouse pairs in our sample. It included the wives of 55 husbands who experienced involuntary job loss between these survey dates and a comparison group of wives of 730 continuously employed husbands. The second data set described the 1994–1996 experience of couples. In particular, it included the wives of an additional 38 husbands who were displaced from their jobs between Waves 2 and 3, and a comparison group of wives of 425 husbands who were continuously employed from 1994 to 1996.

Results. Husbands' involuntary job loss did not have a statistically significant effect on wives' mental health. We found no evidence that changes in husbands' depressive symptoms modified the effect of his job loss on wives' mental health. In the first period only, the effect of husbands' job loss on wives' mental health was more pronounced for wives who were more financially satisfied at baseline.

Discussion. There is limited evidence among this cohort that husbands' job loss increases wives' subsequent depressive symptoms. However, the effect of husbands' job loss on wives' mental health appears to be magnified when wives report being financially satisfied pre-job loss. This suggests that, for subgroups of older couples, mental health services specifically targeted at displaced men should also be made available to wives.