A network perspective on marital satisfaction among older couples

Abstract

It will be helpful for older people to maintain good mental health by improving their marital satisfaction. The present study investigates how the elements of marital satisfaction among older couples are related to each other and reveal the key elements. Four hundred ninety-four older people participated in the study. Marital satisfaction was assessed by the 10-item marital satisfaction subscale of the ENRICH scale. Network analysis was adopted to estimate the network structure of these 10 items and the strength centrality of each item was calculated. The results showed that all edges in the final network were positive. Four edges with the strongest regularized partial correlations appeared between “ leisure activities and spending time together” and “ emotional expression”; “ personality and habits” and “ communication and understanding”; “ economic status and the manner of determining economic affairs” and “ relationship with relatives and friends”; and “ make decisions and resolve conflict” and “ emotional expression.” In addition, “ emotional expression” had the highest node strength value in the network. “ Communication and understanding” and “ views are consistent” had the second and third highest node strength values, respectively. “ Views are consistent” was more central in males than females and was the second central node in male networks. In conclusion, the present study offers a new perspective to deepen the understanding about the internal structure of marital satisfaction among older couples via network analysis. The results might provide potential targets of intervention for social workers or family therapists to greatly improve marital satisfaction among older couples.

Data_Sheet_1.pdf

“…This association aligns with the recently proposed sex-as-leisure perspective, which emphasizes that positive sexuality, by connecting sexual behavior and expression to happiness and wellbeing, is consistent with leisure engagement (Berdychevsky and Carr, 2020;Williams et al, 2020). Previous research involving older couples (Li et al, 2022) found a stronger, moderate-to-large connection between nodes EMS10 and EMS11, although in that study, EMS11 exclusively addressed expression of affection, omitting any mention of sexuality. The difference in effect size might be attributable to the different item wording, as in later life stages, non-sexual forms of affection may become more significant (Towler et al, 2023), resulting in a stronger link with partnership facets such as shared activities.…”

“…This is coherent with findings pointing to the positive impact of good communication on the perception of a partner's behaviors and personal characteristics and on conflict resolution, which may ultimately enhance relationship satisfaction (Li et al, 2018;Pagani et al, 2019;Karakose and Ledermann, 2023). Noteworthy, communication and personality issues were connected by the same edge weight in a study of older couples that explored the network of marital satisfaction using the ENRICH marital satisfaction scale (Li et al, 2022). A small-tomoderate edge connected nodes EMS10 ("I am very happy with how we manage our leisure activities and the time we spend together") and EMS11 ("I am very pleased about how we express affection and relate sexuality").…”

Positive sexuality, relationship satisfaction, and health: a network analysis

“…This association aligns with the recently proposed sex-as-leisure perspective, which emphasizes that positive sexuality, by connecting sexual behavior and expression to happiness and well-being, is consistent with leisure engagement ( Berdychevsky and Carr, 2020 ; Williams et al, 2020 ). Previous research involving older couples ( Li et al, 2022 ) found a stronger, moderate-to-large connection between nodes EMS10 and EMS11, although in that study, EMS11 exclusively addressed expression of affection, omitting any mention of sexuality. The difference in effect size might be attributable to the different item wording, as in later life stages, non-sexual forms of affection may become more significant ( Towler et al, 2023 ), resulting in a stronger link with partnership facets such as shared activities.…”

“…This is coherent with findings pointing to the positive impact of good communication on the perception of a partner’s behaviors and personal characteristics and on conflict resolution, which may ultimately enhance relationship satisfaction ( Li et al, 2018 ; Pagani et al, 2019 ; Karakose and Ledermann, 2023 ). Noteworthy, communication and personality issues were connected by the same edge weight in a study of older couples that explored the network of marital satisfaction using the ENRICH marital satisfaction scale ( Li et al, 2022 ). A small-to-moderate edge connected nodes EMS10 (“I am very happy with how we manage our leisure activities and the time we spend together”) and EMS11 (“I am very pleased about how we express affection and relate sexuality”).…”