In it Together: Relationship Transitions and Couple Concordance in Health and Well-Being

Abstract

Events that change the family system have the potential to impact couple dynamics such as concordance, that is, partner similarity in health and well-being. This project analyzes longitudinal data (≥ two decades) from both partners of up to 3,501 German and 1,842 Australian couples to investigate how couple concordance in life satisfaction, self-rated health, mental health, and physical health might change with transitioning to parenthood and an empty nest. Results revealed couple concordance in intercepts (averaged r = .52), linear trajectories (averaged r = .55), and wave-specific fluctuations around trajectories (averaged r = .21). Concordance in linear trajectories was stronger after transitions (averaged r = .81) than before transitions (averaged r = .43), whereas no systematic transition-related change in concordance of wave-specific fluctuations was found. Findings emphasize that shared transitions represent windows of change capable of sending couples onto mutual upward or downward trajectories in health and well-being.

Differentiation of Self and Life Satisfaction in Married Women: Moderating Role of Mental Wellbeing

“…Whereas Lee (1997) found that differentiation of self leads to higher mental wellbeing. Furthermore, differentiation of self plays a significant role in the development of couple satisfaction (Ferreira, et al, 2014), marital satisfaction (Kinga, 2014;Lim & Jennings, 1996) and spirituality (Jankowski & Vaughn, 2009); all these factors are also found to contributing factors of life satisfaction (Kasapoğlu & Yabanigül, 2018;Mincu & Taşcu, 2015;Yaden et al, 2022) and mental wellbeing (Kumar, 2015;Pauly et al, 2023;Smith-MacDonald et al, 2017;Yousefi, et al, 2009).…”