Work and the Family in Later Life: The Effects of Role Stressors, Role Enhancement, and Role Conflict on Self-Perceptions on Aging

The growing aging workforce comprises older workers with a concurrent family role. Guided by life span development and role theories, the primary study hypothesis was that rewards and stressors in the family and work domains would impact self-perceptions on aging because of the enhancement and conflict between these domains. The study sample consisted of workers older than 50 years with at least one of four family roles (spouse, parent of adult children, caregiver to an aging parent, and grandparent) from the 2010 and 2012 Health and Retirement Study (N = 5,628). Results showed that self-perceptions on aging were impacted directly by family and work stressors and indirectly by these stressors through work-family enhancement and conflict. Work and family roles are thus crucial to the identity of adults in later life.