Institute of Psychology, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2018 Jun 14;73(5):787-798. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbw058.
Mastery beliefs are known to contribute to healthy aging. However, it is an open question whether individual mastery-health associations impact the health of close long-term partners.
We applied actor-partner interdependence models to 4-wave, 6-year longitudinal dyadic data from married and cohabitating partners in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 1,981 partners; age at baseline: M = 67 years, SD = 8.93, range 50-94 years).
Higher individual mastery beliefs were associated with better individual physical health and health behaviors. Higher mastery beliefs were associated with subsequent increases in light physical activity. Having a partner with higher levels of mastery was uniquely associated with fewer functional limitations, better self-rated health, and more physical activity. Actor × Partner interaction effects for functional limitations indicated multiplicative associations of actor and partner mastery with health. Of note, mastery-health associations for individuals and their partners were invariant across age, gender, education, employment status, perceived stress over one's own and partner's health, and cognition.
Findings suggest that partner mastery beliefs matter for the health (behaviors) of older adults. We discuss possible mechanisms underlying partner interrelations in mastery and health, their age invariance, and consider implications arising from our results.
掌握信念被认为有助于健康老龄化。然而，个人掌握-健康关联是否会影响亲密的长期伴侣的健康，这仍是一个悬而未决的问题。
我们应用演员-伙伴相互依存模型，对来自健康与退休研究中的已婚和同居伴侣的 4 波、6 年纵向双元数据进行了分析（N=1981 对伴侣；基线年龄：M=67 岁，SD=8.93，范围 50-94 岁）。
个体掌握信念越高，个体的身体健康和健康行为就越好。较高的掌握信念与随后的轻度体力活动增加有关。拥有一个掌握程度较高的伴侣与较少的功能限制、更好的自我评估健康状况和更多的身体活动有关。功能限制的演员×伴侣交互效应表明，演员和伴侣的掌握与健康之间存在乘法关联。值得注意的是，个体和他们的伴侣的掌握-健康关联在年龄、性别、教育、就业状况、对自己和伴侣健康的感知压力以及认知方面是不变的。
研究结果表明，伴侣掌握信念对老年人的健康（行为）很重要。我们讨论了掌握和健康中伴侣相互关系的潜在机制、它们的年龄不变性，并考虑了我们结果所带来的影响。
