Communicating about Retirement Preferences: Testing the Moderating Role of Age, Marital Quality and Communal Coping in the Theory of Motivated Information Management

Americans are increasingly uncertain about when and how they will retire. Couples may address this uncertainty together as they prepare for and envision retirement over the course of many years (e.g., saving money for decades) and, hence, need to learn about one another’s retirement preferences. Based on responses from married individuals, this exploratory study provides initial support for the theory of motivated information management (TMIM) in explaining information seeking processes about retirement preferences. In this sample, we found that older adults experienced more anxiety in response to retirement-related uncertainty and sought more information from their relational partners even when outcome expectancy was negative and efficacy assessment was low. Relational characteristics including marital quality and communal coping moderated TMIM paths, such that couples with higher marital quality and more communal coping responded more productively to retirement-related uncertainty. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.