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Research

James M. Raymo

Ph.D., University of Michigan
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
jraymo@ssc.wisc.edu

The Family Context of Work at Older Ages

My current research focuses on the relationships between work and family at older ages. I seek to understand how labor force participation in middle and later life is associated with both family structure and various measures of family relations including marital quality, caregiving, and other forms of family-provided support. I am interested in evaluating the ways in which family characteristics influence labor force participation as well as the ways in which transitions out of (and back into) the labor force influence family relations.

Much of my work focuses on Japan which is a very interesting setting given the rapidity of population aging as well as its distinct patterns of labor force participation and family structure at older ages. My research on Japan is based primarily on data from a longitudinal survey conducted since 1987 by the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology and is conducted in collaboration with colleagues at these two institutions. I also do work on the U.S. in which I seek to take advantage of the rich life history information available in surveys of older Americans to develop a better understanding of the ways in which relationships between work and family at older ages are influenced by work and family trajectories across the life course. That is, what are the cumulative influences of work and family experiences across the life course on patterns of (and interactive relationships between) later-life work and family experiences? This work is based primarily on data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and the Health and Retirement Study.

All of my work, including the current focus on work and family, is motivated by an overarching interest in the potential implications of changes in family structure associated with population aging, i.e., how are experiences across the life course influenced (either directly or indirectly) by declines in the number of children (and siblings), increases in the number of older (and potentially frail) family members, increases in the age difference between parents and children, and the increasing likelihood of joint spousal survivorship to older ages. In other related work, I use census data covering a period of 30 years to document changes in the living arrangements of Japanese men and women and to assess the extent to which demographic factors have contributed to the decline in the prevalence of three-generation households. I am also engaged in work that seeks to evaluate the relevance of changing family structure and associated changes in parent-child relations as an explanation for the trend toward later marriage in Japan. A long-term goal of this project will be to follow the lives of young cohorts of Japanese who are currently experiencing rapid change in patterns of family formation in order to examine the relationships between family trajectories across the life course and later-life outcomes.

Representative Publications
Raymo, J.M., Kikuzawa, S., Liang, J., & Kobayashi, E. (In Press) Family structure and well-being at older ages in Japan. Journal of Population Research.

Ho, J., & Raymo, J.M. (2009). Expectations and realization of joint retirement among dual-worker couples. Research on Aging, 31, 153-179.

Raymo, J.M., Liang, S., & Kobayashi, E., Sugihara, Y., & Fukaya, T. (2009). Work, health, and family at older ages in Japan. Research on Aging, 31, 180-206.

Raymo, J.M., & Sweeney, M.M. (2006). Work-family conflict and retirement preferences. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 61B, S161-S169.

Raymo, J.M., Liang, J., Sugisawa, H., Kobayashi, E., & Sugihara, Y. (2004). Work at older ages in Japan: Variation by gender and employment status. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 59B, S154-S163.

Raymo, J.M., & Xie, Y. (2000). Temporal and regional variation in the strength of educational homogamy. (Comment on Smits, Ultee, and Lammers, ASR 1998). American Sociological Review, 65, 773-781.

Raymo, J.M., & Xie, Y. (2000). Income of the urban elderly in post-reform China: Human capital, political capital, and the state. Social Science Research, 29, 1-24.

Raymo, J.M., & Cornman, J.C. (1999). Labor force status transitions at older ages in the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand: 1970-1990. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 14, 221-244.

Raymo, J.M., & Cornman, J.C. (1999). Trends in labor force status across the life course in Taiwan: 1970-1990. In Emerging social economic welfare programs for aging in Taiwan in a world context. Taipei, Taiwan: Academia Sinica Press.

Raymo, J.M. (1998). Later marriages or fewer? Changes in the marital behavior of Japanese women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 1023-1034.

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