Marital Functioning and Psychological Distress Among Older Couples Over an 18-Month Period

• Published in: Journal of sex & marital therapy 2014-05, Vol.40 (3), p.193-208
• Main Authors: Villeneuve, Laurence, Trudel, Gilles, Dargis, Luc, Préville, Michel, Boyer, Richard, Bégin, Jean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Age Factors; Aged; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - epidemiology; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Comorbidity; Couples; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - epidemiology; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Emotional disorders; Family Conflict - psychology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Gender Identity; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Irritable Mood; Male; Marriage; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Older people; Prospective Studies; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Quebec; Risk Factors; Spouses - psychology; Statistics as Topic; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 0092-623X; 1521-0715
• DOI: 10.1080/0092623X.2012.736919

Many authors have underlined the existence of a negative association between marital functioning and psychological distress. However, little is known about the direction of this association over time among older couples. This study examined the relation over time between psychological distress and marital functioning among 394 community-dwelling couples. The authors conducted dyadic data analyses to determine whether marital functioning at baseline (T1) predicted psychological distress 18 months later (T2), and inversely. The results for women suggested that marital and psychological functioning may each predict the other. The results for men showed that marital problems lead to more psychological distress. The authors found some significant partner effects: In both genders, the marital functioning of one spouse influenced the marital functioning of the other. Men's marital functioning at baseline significantly predicted women's psychological distress at T2. The authors conducted analyses also to determine how 6 patterns of change in marital functioning between times were associated with changes in psychological distress, and inversely. Changes characterized by an increase in psychological distress over time in at least 1 spouse were associated with a decrease in marital functioning. These findings underlined the importance for clinicians and researchers to pay closer attention to the association between these variables.