Marital Strain and Support and Subjective Well-Being in Later Life: Ascribing a Role to Early-Life Conditions

Decades of research have the beneficial effects of marital support and the detrimental consequences of marital strain on health and well-being. However, we know relatively less about how circumstances in childhood—a key developmental period of the life course—influence the relational structure in which later life is embedded and any implications this may hold for well-being. We integrate the life course perspective with the stress process model to offer a framework for how childhood conditions (childhood happiness, family structure, and financial strain) moderate the relationship between marital support/strain and subjective well-being in older adulthood in potentially different ways for men and women. The consequences of marital strain may be more severe and the benefits of marital support may not be as strongly felt for those adults who experienced greater adversity during childhood. Drawing on longitudinal data from Waves 2 (2010-2011) and 3 (2015-2016) of the NSHAP project (N = 1,376), results from lagged dependent variable models suggest that marital support buffers the effect of not living with both parents in childhood on subjective well-being for men. Meanwhile, women raised in families that experienced financial hardship reported lower subjective well-being in the context of marital strain in later life. No significant interaction effects were obtained for childhood happiness. Taken together, our findings suggest that adverse experiences in childhood can be scarring, particularly in the context of strained intimate relationships. However, a supportive marriage can, in some cases, offset the effects of childhood hardship on subjective well-being in later life.

Marital Strain and Support and Subjective Well-Being in Later Life: Ascribing a Role to Childhood Adversity

Objectives: We integrate the life course perspective with the stress-process model to offer a framework for how childhood conditions moderate the relationship between marital support/strain and subjective well-being in older adulthood for men and women. Methods: Drawing on longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), we use a series of lagged dependent-variable models and stratify the sample by gender. Results: Our results suggest that the benefits associated with greater marital support are stronger for those that did not live with both parents in childhood for men. Women raised in families that experienced financial hardship reported lower subjective well-being in the context of marital strain. Conclusion: Adverse experiences in childhood can be scarring or foster resilience related to well-being in the context of strained or supportive marriages.

The Intersection of Childhood Maltreatment and Marriage: Implications for Adult’s Health

Childhood maltreatment is associated with mental and physical health problems across the life course. Marriages may be a risk factor for continued mental and physical health problems or, alternatively, they could buffer the effects of maltreatment severity on adult health. Using data from the study of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), we evaluated marital support and strain as moderators of child maltreatment and adults’ subjective evaluations of physical and mental health in a sample of 760 married adults using the life course perspective. Results show that the interaction between childhood maltreatment severity and marital strain was associated with poorer physical health and was marginally associated with mental health. Marital support did not significantly interact with childhood maltreatment severity in predicting adult mental or physical health. Results suggest maltreatment and marital strain interact resulting in a greater accumulation of disadvantage leaving adults at risk for health problems.

Precarious Work, Marital Quality, and Divorce: A Gendered Dyadic Analysis of Aging Couples

Precarious work – work that is unstable and insecure – is often stressful and may contribute to marital strain and dissolution among midlife adults. However, prior research has not considered how precarious work spills over to spouses. Using longitudinal dyadic data of midlife couples from the Health and Retirement Study, I examine whether having a spouse in precarious work is associated with marital strain and dissolution, with attention to differences by gender. I find that indicators of precarious work (job insecurity, schedule variability) are associated with a heightened risk of marital strain and divorce in midlife. These patterns depend on the gender of the spouse experiencing precarious work. Understanding the implications of precarious work for marriage is important because poor marital quality and divorce hasten health declines at older ages. Thus, this study suggests that precarious work may be a risk factor for divorce and poor health among aging adults.

Cognitive Functioning, Gender, and Marital Quality Among Older Married Couples: A Dyadic Approach

Older spouses influence one another in myriad ways, and dyadic effects of marital quality on health and well-being have been well-established. However, little attention has been paid to dyadic implications of cognitive functioning, including for spouses’ perceptions of the relationship itself. This study examines associations of older husbands’ and wives’ cognitive functioning with both partners’ reports of four marital quality outcomes. Structural equation modeling analyzed data from 1,414 opposite-sex couples drawn from the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Findings revealed that (a) wives’ poorer cognitive functioning was associated with wives’ reporting greater closeness and higher ratings of enjoying time with a spouse, whereas (b) husbands’ poorer cognitive functioning was associated with wives’ reporting greater marital strain, lower marital support, lower closeness, and lower ratings of enjoying time with a spouse. This suggests that cognitive functioning/impairment has dyadic consequences for marital quality, which are highly gendered.

Perceptions of Aging and Inflammation in the Context of Older Adult Married Couples

The current study takes a dyadic perspective to understand how self-perceptions of aging are associated with C-reactive protein, an inflammation marker, among older adult married couples. The potential moderating role of marital support and strain are also examined. Respondents include 668 married couples who participated in the 2014 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were conducted in Mplus. Age, functional limitations, income, and race served as covariates. Husbands’ greater positive perceptions of aging were significantly associated with their own lower levels of inflammation. Husbands’ greater positive perceptions of aging were significantly associated with lower levels of inflammation for women who reported lower levels of marital strain; this was not the case for women who reported higher levels of marital negativity. This study exemplifies how relationship factors are necessary to consider when examining age perceptions and health among marrieds.

Daily Marital Strain and Sleep in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples

Marital strain has consistently been linked to many indicators of daily health and well-being, including sleep. Prior studies show that, on days when marital strain is higher, women in different-sex couples experience poorer sleep outcomes. However, this work has not yet considered whether and how these relationships differ for men and women in same-sex couples. Using 10 days of dyadic diary data from 756 midlife U.S. men and women in 378 gay, lesbian, and heterosexual marriages, we examine the associations of daily marital strain with sleep quality and duration and consider whether these relationships differ across union type. Results suggest that increased marital strain is associated with poorer sleep quality and shorter sleep duration, but only for women married to men. These findings underscore the importance of including same-sex couples when exploring linkages between marital dynamics and health, especially when considering how gender impacts these processes.

Marital Effects in Later Life: Dyadic Approaches and Gender Differences

Marriage is a dyadic system, within which the characteristics and experiences of each partner can have implications for both. Moreover, gender of both spouses may impact these dyadic influences. The five papers comprising this symposium all take a dyadic approach to studying midlife and older couples, and how their effects on one another may vary by gender. Donnelly examines the consequences of precarious work among midlife couples, finding heightened risks for marital strain and divorce, depending on which gender spouse is exposed to precarious work. Garcia also analyzes gender differences – in this case, how the gender of a woman’s spouse may affect associations between daily marital strain and sleep quality, with only women married to men showing adverse sleep outcomes. Polenick and colleagues study the long-term repercussions of chronic condition discordance, finding that both individual-level and couple-level discordance had impacts for husbands’ and wives’ physical activity. Gallagher and Stokes focus on cognitive functioning within dyads, revealing gendered effects: Wives’ poorer cognitive functioning was associated with their own (better) marital quality, while husbands’ poorer cognitive functioning was associated with wives’ (worse) marital quality. Lastly, Stokes and Barooah examine longitudinal dyadic associations between loneliness and vascular health, finding that own and partner’s baseline loneliness were associated with increased HbA1c levels only in the context of inferior marital support. Carr will assess the strengths and limitations of these papers, and discuss the contributions these studies can make to the field and to future research on marital effects and gender in later life.

For Better or for Worse: Health and Marital Quality during Midlife

Objective: To examine how changes in health are associated with marital quality over a 20-year period of midlife. Background: The health benefit associated with marriage (compared to non-marriage) is well established. Less work has explored how health and changes in a couple’s health are associated with the marital relationship. Method: We used a sample of continuously married individuals who participated in three waves of the Midlife in the United States study ( n = 1768). Multilevel modeling separated within-person changes and between-person differences in the effect of health on marital quality during midlife and older ages. Results: Marital support was lower and marital strain was higher for those with worse health relative to peers. Marital quality decreased when health decreased. Effects were particularly strong when spouses’ health statuses became more discrepant. Conclusion: Health—of both self and partner—plays an important role in determining the marital quality of married persons during the midlife years.

The Implications of Providing Grandchild Care for Grandparents’ Marital Quality

This study distinguished among types of grandchild care (i.e., co-residence, high and low levels of babysitting, and no care), and examined their associations with grandparents’ marital quality. The sample consisted of 7,267 married grandparents aged 40 years and over from the 2008, 2010, and 2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Providing grandchild care generally undermined grandparents’ marital quality; however, different types of grandchild care affected different aspects of marital quality. The negative effects of providing grandchild care were more pronounced among grandmothers than grandfathers. Grandmothers providing high-level babysitting care were at especially higher risk of experiencing marital strain among the caregiver groups. Findings suggest that providing grandchild care appears to be more of a stressor than a source of reward with respect to shaping grandparents’ marital quality. Sensitivity to such impact on marital quality may be usefully incorporated into developing supports and services meant for grandparent caregivers.