The study was published in the academic Journal of Aging and Health.
Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey found this was especially the case for men born between 1931 and 1941 who would now be in their 70s and 80s. They appeared to have poor overall health and this was worse if their wives began earning more than they did early on in their marriages.
This pattern was identified following an analysis of health and income data for 1,095 couples over 30 years. The figures were taken from the National Institute on Aging’s Health and Retirement study.
Study author Kristen Springer suggested that social expectations could be to blame for such a finding. Men of that era could feel additional stress if they lived in a household with a female breadwinner because they were expected to be the provider.
Many Americans still retain this attitude. In 1977, two thirds thought it was “generally better for a marriage if a husband earns more than his wife” and 40 per cent of people over 65 still thought this was true in 2013, according to Springer’s research.
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