Cross-sectional findings that depressive symptoms in one older spouse influence those of the other and that marital closeness increases the influences (R.B. Tower & S.V. Kasl, 1995) were tested longitudinally. Independent interviews in 1982, 1985, and 1988 with spouse-pairs who participated in the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly showed that changes in depressive symptoms in one older spouse contributed to changes in depressive symptoms in the other. For wives in 1985 and for husbands in 1988, a spouse's baseline depressive symptoms also contributed independent variance to an increase in respondent's score on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. These findings were stronger when a couple was close. These results held when known intrapersonal risk factors and the health status of the spouse were controlled.
Independent interviews with husbands and wives from 317 community-dwelling older couples showed that depressive symptoms in 1 spouse had a significant impact on depressive symptoms in the other spouse, after controlling for potentially confounding respondent sociodemographic and health status variables. Relationship quality moderated the influence, with spouse depressive symptoms contributing more of the variance to a respondent's symptoms when a couple were close than when they were not and closeness to a spouse buffering the potentially depressive effects of a respondent's own frailty and financial distress. Husband's own variables explained more of the variance in his symptoms when the couple were not close than when they were, and closeness to his wife increased a husband's vulnerability to the impact of the wife's health status.
Data from the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPESE) in New Haven include independent interviews with husbands and wives in 317 community-dwelling older couples. Drawing on these data, we (a) describe the prevalence of three aspects of marital closeness: having a confidant, perceived emotional support, and reciprocity between spouses' reports of marital closeness; (b) evaluate their associations with depressive symptoms according to both a respondent's own and his or her spouse's reports; and (c) examine gender similarities and differences in the prevalence and the associations of the closeness variables. Both husbands and wives responded more strongly to their spouse's than to their own. Different dynamics operate, with husbands having fewest depressive symptoms when they have emotionally independent wives, and wives having low levels when they feel important emotionally to their husbands. Dyadic closeness was associated with fewer symptoms in wives and more symptoms in husbands.
A substantive literature connects spirituality to positive physical, social, and mental health. In this study, the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) was administered to 410 subjects who participated in a community study and to 87 residents at the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale (HHAR), the latter sample consisting primarily of older Jewish respondents. Internal consistency of the DSES in both samples was high and exploratory factor analyses revealed one dominant factor and a second factor, which included 14 and 2 items, respectively, consistent with the scale's original validation (Underwood and Teresi 2002). Demographic subgroup comparison among religious groups revealed significantly fewer daily spiritual experiences among Jews, and lowest scores among those respondents endorsing no religious affiliation. Women exhibited more frequent daily experience than men, and attainment of higher levels of education was associated with less frequent daily spiritual experience. All but one of the outcome measures of physical and psychologic well-being were found to be positively associated with the DSES so that more frequent daily spiritual experience correlated with less psychopathology, more close friendships, and better self-rated health. Directions for future research, study interpretation and limitations, and clinical implications for use of the DSES are discussed.
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