Retired Husband Syndrome

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Retired Husband Syndrome ( German " Retired Husband Syndrome ") is a description of the social situation that affects the wives of busy men when they retire.

Social background

In many industrialized societies today, it is necessary and common for a spouse to spend a significant portion of their life away from home in order to pursue employment. In addition to the pure working time, there is also the drive to the workplace, as well as secondary activities such as company sports , business trips and off- duty activities.

As a result of these long absences, the affected families become increasingly alienated . The other family members adapt their lives to the situation.

Problem

Due to the strong involvement of the husband in professional life, he loses the necessary social skills to reintegrate into the family when he retires. As a result of the stress that occurs in this way, the wife can experience back pain, asthma , depression and , more rarely, heart problems.

consequences

The characteristics of the retired husband syndrome put a significant strain on marriage. Research in Japan has shown that the divorce rate among retirees there has increased significantly in recent years. It is believed that one reason for this phenomenon is retired husband syndrome . Based on the data of the Japanese long-term studies, a research duo from Italy came to the conclusion that women of busy husbands after retirement have increased the probability from 5% to 14% of showing symptoms of increasing stress levels, more frequent depression and increased insomnia.

literature

  • Charles Clifford Johnson: The retired husband syndrome. West J Med 141 (1984), 542-5, PMID 6506693 , PMC 1021891 (free full text)
  • John Haffner, Tomas Casas i Klett, Jean-Pierre Lehmann: Japan's Open Future: An Agenda for Global Citizenship . Anthem Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-85728-685-7 ( full text in Google book search).
  • Marco Bertoni and Giorgio Brunello: Pappa Ante Portas : The Retired Husband Syndrome in Japan, July 2014.

reception

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Lin Freitag: When managers retire, the wife becomes depressed. Loriot was right: the husband's retirement has an impact on the woman's mental health. Scientists found this out in a long-term study. In: Zeit Online. Zeit Online GmbH, September 14, 2014, accessed on September 14, 2014 .