Gagnon M D, Hersen M, Kabacoff R I, Van Hasselt V B
Center of Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, USA.
Clin Psychol Rev. 1999 Apr;19(3):359-78. doi: 10.1016/s0272-7358(97)00048-2.
Developmental studies suggest that marital quality improves in old age (e.g., Guilford & Bengtson, 1979). However, many of the studies are replete with sampling biases that probably led to an overinflated positive report of marital satisfaction in older adults. Our review evaluated contemporary studies that have investigated interpersonal and psychological factors associated with dissatisfaction in long-term marriages. Recent investigations indicate that older marriages benefit from lower levels of conflict and greater sources of mutual pleasure following child-rearing cessation. Studies of social support in long-term marriages suggest that perceptions of spousal support are more strongly related to marital satisfaction and general well-being for older women than for men. A few investigations have found a significant relationship between depression and marital discord in older adult samples, and the causal flow between these two variables appears to be unidirectional in that depression has a detrimental impact on late-life marital quality. Indeed, depression has been found to mediate the link between many age-related stressors (e.g., ill health, retirement) and declines in marital adjustment. However, our preliminary analysis of marital adjustment within a depressed, older adult, outpatient sample of married individuals did not confirm statistically that marital discord is associated with depressive symptomatology. This, in part, was attributed to the very narrow range of older adults sampled (i.e., clinic patients suffering from depression). However, the majority of depressives characterized their marriages as discordant. The implications for these findings are discussed and future directions are offered.
发展研究表明，婚姻质量在老年时会有所改善（例如，吉尔福德和本格森，1979年）。然而，许多研究存在抽样偏差，这可能导致对老年人婚姻满意度的积极报告被过度夸大。我们的综述评估了当代研究，这些研究调查了与长期婚姻中的不满相关的人际和心理因素。最近的调查表明，在停止育儿后，老年婚姻受益于较低水平的冲突和更多的共同愉悦来源。对长期婚姻中社会支持的研究表明，与男性相比，老年女性对配偶支持的感知与婚姻满意度和总体幸福感的关系更为密切。一些调查发现，在老年样本中，抑郁与婚姻不和之间存在显著关系，而且这两个变量之间的因果关系似乎是单向的，即抑郁对晚年婚姻质量有不利影响。事实上，已经发现抑郁在许多与年龄相关的压力源（如健康不佳、退休）与婚姻适应能力下降之间起中介作用。然而，我们对一个患有抑郁症的老年已婚门诊样本中的婚姻适应情况进行的初步分析并没有从统计学上证实婚姻不和与抑郁症状有关。这部分归因于所抽样的老年人范围非常狭窄（即患有抑郁症的门诊患者）。然而，大多数抑郁症患者将他们的婚姻描述为不和。本文讨论了这些发现的意义并提供了未来的研究方向。
