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Women in heterosexual marriages who work in middle age are less likely to be depressed later in life than those who don鈥檛.

鈥淚t seems natural to think about decisions that we make shaping later life experiences,鈥� says at Brigham Young University in Utah. Previous research has examined the way that employment can improve mental health for both men and women, says Wikle, but it is unclear if those benefits persist once work has stopped. 鈥淎s far as I can tell, no one has really asked the question about what the mental health pros and cons are later in life of women working.鈥�

To help answer this question, Wikle and her colleagues assessed data from 409 married heterosexual couples who participated in the University of Michigan鈥檚 between 2000 and 2015. This ongoing study surveys people over the age of 50 in the US every two years about employment, relationship status, emotional well-being and more. All couples selected for the present study were between the ages of 65 and 75 when they participated.

Middle age is often defined as the period of life between about 40 and 60 years of age, though some research broadens that range from 35 to 65 years.

For this study, the researchers looked at participants鈥� work patterns between the ages of 50 and 59, trying to home in on the years before people start to retire. They defined full-time work as averaging more than 20 hours of paid work per week.

Of the couples, 248 were in dual-earner marriages, meaning both partners worked full time, and 161 were in male-earner marriages, meaning only the husband did so.

The researchers assessed multiple aspects of participants鈥� emotional well-being using a scale of 0 to 1 鈥� with scores closer to 1 indicating more experience of a feeling 鈥� based on answers to survey questions about happiness, depression, loneliness and motivation.

They found that women in dual-earner marriages were less likely to experience feelings of depression later in life than those in male-earner marriages, even after accounting for factors like race, education and health. On average, women in dual-earner marriages scored 0.08 for depression compared with an average score of 0.13 for women in male-earner marriages. They also reported experiencing less loneliness and more motivation.

Interestingly, husbands also benefited from their wives working. The average depression score for men in dual-earner marriages was 0.06 versus 0.12 for those in male-earner marriages.

There is no doubt that the greater financial security afforded by two incomes played a role. On average, dual-earner households had an annual income of $98,000 compared with $90,000 for male-earner households. 鈥淭hat can make a big difference for couples down the road into retirement when finances become tighter,鈥� says Wikle.

But in addition to having more financial resources, Wikle thinks that working through this stage of life might improve women鈥檚 mental health by providing more opportunities to build social networks, skills and identities outside the home.

鈥淪o long as the labour is not exploitative, this makes for a happier existence and it鈥檚 not surprising that it would still hold later on [in life],鈥� says at Queen鈥檚 University in Canada.

Volunteering or community activism may have similar effects, says Wikle, but this wasn鈥檛 measured in the study. The study also didn鈥檛 include same-sex relationships or marriages that ended in divorce or had a female breadwinner.

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