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Bridge Employment and Marital Quality in Germany – Different Implications for Men and Women?

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Abstract

Paid work beyond retirement is a key potential of older adults in ageing societies. Although evidence on antecedents of bridge employment exists, consequences for partnership quality are not clear, especially for Germany. In this study we analyse how paid work after receiving an old age pension is associated with partnership quality in Germany and whether this is moderated by gender. We use the survey “Transitions and Old Age Potential (TOP)” as the basis for our analyses. Hierarchical binary logistic models were estimated, controlling for socio-demographic, socio-economic and retirement-related variables as well as the interaction between gender and bridge employment. Bridge employment was not directly associated with partnership quality. Rather, women who perform bridge employment have a lower chance of seeing their partnership as improved compared to men who were bridge employed. The evidence emphasises a gender perspective to better understand the consequence of paid work for marital quality in retirement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the researchers at the Federal Institute of Population Research at Wiesbaden, Germany for giving valuable remarks to the first draft of the manuscript, and an anonymous referee for very helpful comments and suggestions.

Funding

The study and the project staff are financed by the regular budget of the Federal Institute for Population Research at Wiesbaden, Germany. The project did not receive any funding by third parties.

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  1. Federal Institute for Population Research, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4, 65185, Wiesbaden, Germany

    Andreas Mergenthaler & Volker Cihlar

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  1. Andreas Mergenthaler
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Correspondence to Andreas Mergenthaler.

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Conflict of Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests has been provided. This study was based on a large dataset that is available for scientific community that can be obtained from GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften at Cologne, Germany (doi: 10.4232/1.12477). The study complied with ethical standards including informed consent obtained from the participants.

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Mergenthaler, A., Cihlar, V. Bridge Employment and Marital Quality in Germany – Different Implications for Men and Women?. Ageing Int 43, 336–355 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-017-9281-y

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