Dataset Information

Associations Between Perceived Support in Older Adult Marriages and Dyadic Covariations in Momentary Affect and Aches.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Spousal support within marriage may be particularly important in old age when spouses become more likely to rely on each other's help. However, spousal support does not have to be unanimously positive. In fact, very little is known about covariations in spousal affect and aches as couples engage in their daily routines and environments.

Method

Up to 27 simultaneous, momentary assessments from 49 older adult married couples (M age = 72 years [60-83]; M relationship duration = 42 years) were used taking into account the perspective of both partners.

Results

This study shows that social support within marriage was associated with reduced overall levels of negative affect (NA) but unrelated to positive affect (PA). Interestingly, high spousal support was both associated with reduced overall NA means but also with an increased covariation in NA between partners. No similar covariations were observed for aches and PA.

Discussion

Spousal support may be a double-edged sword; it is associated with reduced overall NA, but it may also lead to more permeable boundaries between spouses that seem to be specific to NA.

SUBMITTER: Michalowski VI

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6084064 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Associations Between Perceived Support in Older Adult Marriages and Dyadic Covariations in Momentary Affect and Aches.

Michalowski Victoria I VI Hoppmann Christiane A CA Gerstorf Denis D

The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences 20141030 3

<h4>Objectives</h4>Spousal support within marriage may be particularly important in old age when spouses become more likely to rely on each other's help. However, spousal support does not have to be unanimously positive. In fact, very little is known about covariations in spousal affect and aches as couples engage in their daily routines and environments.<h4>Method</h4>Up to 27 simultaneous, momentary assessments from 49 older adult married couples (M age = 72 years [60-83]; M relationship durat ...[more]

PMID: 25359938

Similar Datasets

Project description:When experiencing personal distress, people usually expect their romantic partner to be supportive. However, when put in a situation to provide support, people may at times (still) be struggling with issues of their own. This interdependent nature of dyadic coping interactions as well as potential spillover effects is mirrored in the state-of-the-art research method to behaviorally assess couple's dyadic coping processes. This paradigm typically includes two videotaped 8-min dyadic coping conversations in which partners swap roles as sharer and support provider. Little is known about how such dyadic coping interactions may feed back into one another, impacting the motivation and ability to be a responsive support provider. In three behavioral studies, we examined how sharers' experiences may spill over to affect their own support provision in a subsequent dyadic coping interaction. We hypothesized that the extent to which sharers perceive their partner as responsive to their self-disclosure increases the quality of their own subsequent support provision (Hypothesis 1), whereas sharers' lingering negative affect reduces the quality of their own subsequent support provision (Hypothesis 2). In line with our first hypothesis, perceived partner responsiveness predicted the provision of higher-quality support, though primarily as perceived by the partner. Sharers who perceived their partner to have been more responsive were somewhat more likely to subsequently engage in positive dyadic coping and were rated as more responsive by their partners. Negative dyadic coping behavior was unaffected. Evidence for our second hypothesis was mixed. While lingering negative affect did not affect positive dyadic coping behavior or perceived support, it did increase the chances of negative dyadic coping behavior. However, given the very low occurrences of negative affect and negative dyadic coping, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Taken together, these findings suggest that support interactions may feed back into one another, highlighting the complex and interdependent nature of dyadic coping. The strongest and most consistent findings concerned the spillover effect of perceived partner responsiveness on subsequent perceived support quality, speaking to the key role of believing that one's partner is responsive to one's needs in promoting healthy relationship functioning.

Dataset Information

Associations Between Perceived Support in Older Adult Marriages and Dyadic Covariations in Momentary Affect and Aches.

Objectives

Method

Results

Discussion

Publications

Associations Between Perceived Support in Older Adult Marriages and Dyadic Covariations in Momentary Affect and Aches.

Similar Datasets

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