Subjective Well-Being Dynamics in Couples from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging

Abstract

Background: There is growing evidence for spousal associations in late-life development among key functional domains. Spousal interrelations in subjective well-being (SWB) have primarily been discussed in the context of a model of ‘transmission’, an indicator of well-being. Typically, depression is used to mark this, but few studies have examined if such transmission can be found over the long term in older couples’ SWB. Objective: We aimed to determine whether longitudinal dyadic interrelations exist among older couples in the SWB domain, as indicated by morale. Methods: We applied dynamic models to 11-year longitudinal data of 316 couples from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging (median age = 75 years at baseline) to explore whether the levels of SWB for one partner predict change in SWB for the other. Results: Spousal interrelations emerged and were found to be gender-specific with wives predicting subsequent change among husbands, but not the reverse pattern of influence. Husbands whose wives reported higher initial SWB showed a relatively shallower decline over time relative to husbands whose wives reported lower initial SWB levels. These associations were robust after covarying for differences in age, education, health and marital characteristics (number of children and length of marriage). Conclusion: Our study is consistent with, and illustrates empirically that close relationships shape individual developmental outcomes. The findings suggest that wives play an important role in setting the affective tone in older couples. We discuss possible factors underlying such interrelations.

Social partners and momentary affect in the oldest-old: The presence of others benefits affect depending on who we are and who we are with.

“…In contrast, friends constitute the short-term process properties of social relationships, which contribute to individuals' momentary affective experiences. These findings were consistent with findings on tension and ambivalence in parent-adult children relationships (Fingerman et al, 2008) and spousal relationships in old age Walker et al, 2011).…”

Dyadic Interrelations in Lifespan Development and Aging: How Does 1 + 1 Make a Couple? – Introduction

“…Second, late-life marriages are typically dynamic and idiosyncratic [8,9] . Specifically, older spouses are often closer to each other than they were in earlier life phases and they try to optimize the emotional climate in their relationship, as shown in the second paper by Walker et al [10] . Over and above sharing normative age-related experiences (e.g.…”

“…All studies have in common that they use couple data, but some illustrate naturally occurring spousal interrelations in aging [7,10,16] , whereas others focus on highly controlled tests of dyadic mechanisms using lab-based experimental approaches and including nonspousal dyads [13] . The studies using longitudinal couple data examine dyadic processes that operate over different time frames, ranging from multiple years [10,16] to days with repeated daily-life assessments [7] .…”

“…All studies have in common that they use couple data, but some illustrate naturally occurring spousal interrelations in aging [7,10,16] , whereas others focus on highly controlled tests of dyadic mechanisms using lab-based experimental approaches and including nonspousal dyads [13] . The studies using longitudinal couple data examine dyadic processes that operate over different time frames, ranging from multiple years [10,16] to days with repeated daily-life assessments [7] . Finally, this special series brings together studies using population-based samples of community-dwelling older spouses [10,15] , specific patient samples [7] and discrete experimental samples [13] to address how dyadic mechanisms operate in both healthy and vulnerable older spouses.…”

“…The studies using longitudinal couple data examine dyadic processes that operate over different time frames, ranging from multiple years [10,16] to days with repeated daily-life assessments [7] . Finally, this special series brings together studies using population-based samples of community-dwelling older spouses [10,15] , specific patient samples [7] and discrete experimental samples [13] to address how dyadic mechanisms operate in both healthy and vulnerable older spouses.…”