Longitudinal Dyadic Associations between Depressive Symptoms and Life Satisfaction among Chinese Married Couples and the Moderating Effect of Within-Dyad Age Discrepancy

Abstract

Family systems theory defines the family unit as a complex social system in which individual members influence and are influenced by each other. The current study aimed to investigate the longitudinal dyadic associations between life satisfaction and depressive symptoms among a sample of Chinese married couples and the moderating effect of within-dyad age discrepancy. The current sample included 5773 married couples who completed three waves of assessments of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2012, 2016, and 2018. The sample was categorized into two groups based on the within-dyad age discrepancy: the younger-wife–older-husband dyads (n = 4280, 74.13%) and the older-wife–younger-husband dyads (n = 1493, 25.86%). The longitudinal actor–partner interdependence models with multiple-group analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that a majority of actor effects were significant across time, and the two groups exhibited the same pattern among the actor effects. The older-wife–younger-husband dyads showed fewer significant partner effects than the younger-wife–older-husband dyads, and most partner effects indicated mutual rather than unidirectional influence. These findings yielded support for the statement of family systems theory that family members interconnect and that the development of one’s well-being needs to be understood in the context of the spouse’s well-being.

Intra- and Inter-Individual Associations of Family-to-Work Conflict, Psychological Distress, and Job Satisfaction: Gender Differences in Dual-Earner Parents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, our findings align with a previous study showing an asymmetrical crossover from men's depressive symptoms to their wives' life satisfaction [54]. One feasible expla-nation of our findings may be related to the results of Chi et al [53] in a longitudinal study with father-mother-adolescent triads.…”

“…To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no available studies that have evaluated the crossover effects between one member of a couple's psychological distress and the other member's job satisfaction; however, there is evidence showing that individuals' mental health can affect their partners' well-being [17,[52][53][54][55]. Schnettler et al [52] found that a man's depression was negatively associated with a woman's satisfaction with family life and vice versa.…”

“…Chi et al [53] found that psychological distress is transmitted only from fathers to mothers. Moreover, in a longitudinal study, Guo [54] found that a husband's depressive symptoms crossed over to his wife's life satisfaction, negatively affecting their well-being two years later. We argue that similar results may be expected for psychological distress and job satisfaction and thus posit the following hypothesis (Figure 1): Hypothesis 6.…”

The Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Adults Aged 35–60 Years: The Mediating Role of Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction

“…At the same time, adults in this age group are at a stage where their career development, family cycles, and life cycles overlap. They also face pressures from working, supporting parents, raising children as well as managing and maintaining marriages and relationships [10]. All of these may lead to having some influence on the adults' mental health, which manifests as unstable mental state and mood changes such as irritability or anxiety together with other negative emotions, and may even cause depression [11,12].…”