Retirement effects on parent-adult child contacts

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Gerontology
• Family Studies

Background:

• Parent-child relationships are crucial throughout the lifespan.
• Retirement is a significant life transition that can alter family dynamics.
• Understanding post-retirement family contact is vital for aging populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how parents' retirement status affects their contact frequency with adult children living outside the household.
• To analyze variations in contact (visits, telephone calls) based on parental retirement.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N=2,153 parent-adult child dyads).
• Employed generalized estimating equations (GEE) with robust standard errors for analysis.
• Focused on parents aged 55-75 and adult children residing separately.

Main Results:

• Parental retirement did not significantly alter telephone/letter contact frequency.
• Retired parents generally maintained frequent in-person visits with adult children.
• Gender-specific effects emerged: retired mothers (vs. fathers) had fewer visits with nearby children, but more with distant childless children.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest gendered differences in the importance of child contact for retirees.
• Future research should explore reciprocal expectations between parents and children regarding post-retirement contact.
• Retirement's impact on family contact is nuanced and gender-dependent.