Monin Joan K, Levy Becca R, Kane Heidi S
Social and Behavioral Sciences Division, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut.
The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2017 May 1;72(3):383-387. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbv070.
For older adults coping with a spouse's chronic condition, greater marital satisfaction may not be entirely protective for psychological health. We examined marital satisfaction and gender as moderators of the association between perceived spousal suffering and daily emotional contagion. Based on empathy-altruism and interdependent self-construal theories, we hypothesized that high marital satisfaction and being female would heighten daily emotional contagion, or within-person associations between perceived spouse suffering and distress to spouse suffering.
Forty-five older adults who had a spouse with a musculoskeletal condition completed daily interviews. Participants reported their marital satisfaction once in the laboratory and then daily perceptions of their spouse's physical suffering and their own distress to spouse suffering via phone at home for 7 days.
Consistent with hypotheses, there were significant within-person effects such that highly satisfied wives experienced heightened emotional contagion on days when they perceived higher than average spouse suffering. Unexpectedly, men who were high in marital satisfaction experienced heightened daily distress irrespective of their perceptions of level of spousal suffering.
Marital satisfaction can increase daily emotional contagion to spousal suffering among older couples dealing with chronic conditions. Wives' distress may be more dependent on perceiving high levels of partner suffering compared with husbands' distress.
对于应对配偶慢性病的老年人而言，较高的婚姻满意度可能并非对心理健康具有完全的保护作用。我们研究了婚姻满意度和性别作为感知到的配偶痛苦与日常情绪感染之间关联的调节因素。基于共情 - 利他主义和相互依存自我建构理论，我们假设高婚姻满意度和女性身份会加剧日常情绪感染，即感知到的配偶痛苦与对配偶痛苦的困扰之间的个体内关联。
45名配偶患有肌肉骨骼疾病的老年人完成了每日访谈。参与者在实验室中报告一次他们的婚姻满意度，然后在家中通过电话连续7天每天报告他们对配偶身体痛苦的感知以及他们自己对配偶痛苦的困扰。
与假设一致，存在显著的个体内效应，即高度满意的妻子在她们感知到配偶痛苦高于平均水平的日子里情绪感染加剧。出乎意料的是，婚姻满意度高的男性无论对配偶痛苦程度的感知如何，每天都会经历更高的困扰。
婚姻满意度会增加应对慢性病的老年夫妇对配偶痛苦的日常情绪感染。与丈夫的困扰相比，妻子的困扰可能更依赖于感知到伴侣的高水平痛苦。
