Correspondence should be addressed to Adena Galinsky, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205. E-mail:
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2014 May;69(3):482-92. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbt165. Epub 2014 Jan 27.
The pathways linking spousal health to marital quality in later life have been little examined at the population level. We develop a conceptual model that links married older adults' physical health and that of their spouse to positive and negative dimensions of marital quality via psychological well-being of both partners and their sexual activity.
We use data from 1,464 older adults in 732 marital dyads in the 2010-2011 wave of the National Social Life Health and Aging Project.
We find that own fair or poor physical health is linked to lower positive and higher negative marital quality, spouse's health to positive quality, and that own and spouse's mental health and more frequent sex are associated with higher positive and lower negative marital quality. Further, we find that (a) sexual activity mediates the association between own and partner's physical health and positive marital quality, (b) own mental health mediates the association between one's own physical health and both positive and negative marital quality, and (c) partner's mental health mediates the associations of spouse's physical health with positive marital quality. These results are robust to alternative specifications of the model.
The results suggest ways to protect marital quality among older adults who are struggling with physical illness in themselves or their partners.
配偶的健康状况与晚年婚姻质量之间的关联途径在人群层面上尚未得到充分研究。我们构建了一个概念模型，将已婚老年夫妇双方的身体健康状况与其心理幸福感以及性行为联系起来，进而将其与婚姻质量的积极和消极维度联系起来。
我们使用了 2010-2011 年全国社会生活、健康和老龄化项目第 7 波调查中 732 对婚姻伴侣中 1464 位老年人的数据。
我们发现，自身健康状况一般或较差与较低的积极婚姻质量和较高的消极婚姻质量相关，而配偶的健康状况与积极婚姻质量相关，自身和配偶的心理健康状况以及更频繁的性生活与更高的积极婚姻质量和更低的消极婚姻质量相关。此外，我们发现：（a）性行为在自身和伴侣的身体健康状况与积极婚姻质量之间起中介作用；（b）自身的心理健康状况在自身身体健康状况与积极和消极婚姻质量之间起中介作用；（c）配偶的心理健康状况在配偶的身体健康状况与积极婚姻质量之间起中介作用。这些结果在模型的替代规范下仍然稳健。
研究结果为保护那些自身或伴侣存在身体健康问题的老年夫妇的婚姻质量提供了途径。
