Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta., Canada.
Gerontology. 2011;57(2):173-9. doi: 10.1159/000320325. Epub 2010 Aug 20.
Among older adults, everyday competence is often expressed in the context of other participating individuals. Although this active human context may be occasionally comprised of mere acquaintances, long-term partners (such as couples) often act as a unit in engaging in everyday actions or reporting on familiar domains. This special section reflects an important movement in aging research to examine couples as an alternative but normatively common unit of analysis. My discussion focuses on 2 main issues. First, I sketch the rationale, logic, expectation and evidence that long-term couples might develop and display unique advantages in everyday competence. Second, I explore the possibilities that epidemiological principles - thus far applied primarily to individual-level aging, decline and disease - may provide concepts or models for research on long-term changes in couple-level adaptation.
在老年人中，日常能力通常是在其他参与个体的背景下表现出来的。尽管这种积极的人际环境偶尔可能只包括熟人，但长期伴侣（如夫妻）通常在参与日常活动或报告熟悉的领域时作为一个单位行动。本专题反映了老龄化研究中的一个重要动向，即将夫妻视为一种可供选择但在规范上很常见的分析单位。我的讨论集中在两个主要问题上。首先，我概述了长期夫妻在日常能力方面可能具有独特优势的理由、逻辑、期望和证据。其次，我探讨了流行病学原则（迄今为止主要应用于个体水平的衰老、衰退和疾病）是否可能为夫妻水平适应的长期变化研究提供概念或模型。
