Life course theories highlight the importance of understanding psychological health of aging individuals in context. Work and marriage are influential contexts in later life that are increasingly relevant because both spouses of many households work and individuals are delaying retirement. Although there is extensive literature on predictors of depressive symptoms, incorporating life course histories of work and social contexts has been a critical omission in the aging and health field. This study identifies couples' work trajectories as a function of husband's and wife's weekly work hours and examines the link between couple work-hour trajectory membership and individual depressive symptoms. Data are from 1641 married couples who participated in the 1998-2012 waves (ages 51-89) of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Findings revealed six distinct subgroups of work-hour trajectories among couples and that membership in these subgroups was associated with depressive symptoms. Retiring husbands with wives who continued to work and wives who worked minimally throughout the years (regardless of whether their husbands worked or retired) reported more depressive symptoms than other subgroups. These results suggest that work trajectories themselves, beyond current health status, may carry differential psychological health risk. Moreover, several sociodemographic and life course factors in 1998 were significant predictors of trajectory membership. These findings provide insight into midlife factors that may influence work trajectories (and the potential health risk) through to older adulthood. They suggest that a life course examination of work and social contexts is needed for a greater understanding of individual and couple health development.

中文翻译：

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中年和老年已婚夫妇的工作时间轨迹和抑郁症状

生命历程理论强调了在上下文中理解老年人心理健康的重要性。工作和婚姻是晚年有影响力的背景，因为许多家庭的配偶和个人都在推迟退休，因此越来越相关。尽管有大量关于抑郁症状预测因素的文献，但结合工作和社会背景的生命历程历史一直是老龄化和健康领域的一个重要遗漏。本研究将夫妻的工作轨迹确定为夫妻每周工作时间的函数，并检查夫妻工作时间轨迹成员资格与个人抑郁症状之间的联系。数据来自 1641 对参加 1998-2012 年健康与退休研究 (HRS) 浪潮（51-89 岁）的已婚夫妇。调查结果显示，夫妻之间有六个不同的工作时间轨迹亚组，这些亚组的成员身份与抑郁症状有关。与妻子继续工作的退休丈夫和多年来工作最少的妻子（无论他们的丈夫是工作还是退休）报告的抑郁症状比其他亚组更多。这些结果表明，超出当前健康状况的工作轨迹本身可能会带来不同的心理健康风险。此外，1998 年的几个社会人口和生命历程因素是轨迹成员的重要预测因素。这些发现提供了对可能影响工作轨迹（和潜在的健康风险）直至成年的中年因素的洞察。