In adjusting to chronic illness, patients often negotiate new or altered daily routines within a dynamic family context. Yet, the responses of family members to the disease and its management are understudied. The authors investigated patients with Type 2 diabetes and their spouses (N = 55 couples) and examined the association of diet-related interactions (i.e., diet-related support, diet-related pressure, and frequency of sharing meals together) with each partner's adjustment to the illness context (i.e., diabetes distress). All spouses (100%) reported providing some type of diet-related support to their partners with diabetes in the past month, and many reported exerting pressure to improve their partners' diet choices (60%). In addition, many couples (64%) indicated that they frequently shared meals together in the past month. For spouses, their provision of diet-related pressure was associated (positively) with their diabetes distress. Frequently sharing meals was associated with less diabetes distress among patients, even after controlling for their glycemic control and diet adherence. Findings reveal that spouses of patients with diabetes are actively involved in illness management with their partners, and these activities are associated with their own diabetes distress and with that of their ill partners.

For married patients, chronic illness management often includes involvement of their spouses. We examined expectations regarding spouse involvement in the health of a partner with type 2 diabetes (N = 139 couples) from the perspectives of the patient and spouse. Partners’ dyadic expectations and spouses’ gender were posited to moderate spouses’ diet-related control and patients’ diet adherence. Among male patients, when both partners shared an expectation for spouse involvement greater diet-related spouse control was associated with better diet adherence of patients. In contrast, when expectations for spouse involvement were not shared, greater spouse control by wives was associated with poorer diet adherence. Dyadic expectations for spouse involvement did not moderate the association between spouse control and diet adherence among female patients. Findings suggest that shared expectations for spouse involvement can facilitate spouses’ attempts to improve patients’ dietary adherence, especially among male patients and their wives.

Objectives We investigated patients’ difficulties in managing their diet (i.e., diet setbacks) and associations with change in disease-specific and general emotional distress (diabetes distress and depressive symptoms) among patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses. Method Data for this study were collected in couples’ homes (N = 115 couples) using structured interviews and self-administered questionnaires at three time points: baseline (T1), six months after baseline (T2), and twelve months after baseline (T3). Results Patients’ diet setbacks were associated with an increase in their diabetes distress in the shorter-term (over six months). Patients’ diet setbacks were not associated with longer-term change in diabetes distress or with change in depressive symptoms at either time point (six months or one year). In contrast, spouses’ perceptions of patients’ diet setbacks were associated with increases in their own diabetes distress at both time points (over six months and one year), and also with an increase in their depressive symptoms in the longer-term (over one year). Conclusion Findings reveal detrimental consequences of patients’ diet nonadherence for emotional well-being that extend to the well-being of their spouses.

Individuals working long hours and/or experiencing work-related stress, including work-family conflict, are less likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors. Grounded in a life course perspective and guided by the conceptualization of life course fit, this study examined appraisals of fit between work and family roles and engagement in health-promoting behaviors, specifically physical activity and family meals, using a sample of parents (n = 811). The sample was drawn from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a nationally representative sample of workers in the United States. Results suggest that multiple dimensions of fit were associated with greater frequency of exercise and family meals. Furthermore, parenting demands and eldercare moderated these associations. A better understanding of the proximal processes related to engagement in health-promoting behaviors would be valuable in understanding how to secure the health and well-being of families for the future.

Everyday support given to aging parents is a salient aspect of married life that may have implications for marital quality. Among 132 middle-aged couples drawn from Wave 1 of the Family Exchanges Study, we examined the moderating effects of each spouse’s normative and motivational beliefs about helping parents on associations between the frequency of everyday support that wives and husbands gave to their own parents and marital satisfaction. Husbands' more frequent provision of support was linked to wives' greater marital satisfaction when reports of personal rewards linked to helping parents were high for wives or low for husbands. Conversely, wives’ more frequent provision of support was linked to husbands’ lower marital satisfaction when reports of filial obligation were low for husbands or high for wives. Findings highlight the interdependence within couples, and indicate that both spouses' perceptions are important in understanding linkages between intergenerational support and marital satisfaction.