Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Jan 12;77(1):29-38. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab052.
This study focuses on the role of spouses for facilitating goal progress during a phase in life when individual resources for goal pursuit are particularly limited. Specifically, we examined the moderating role of relationship characteristics in old age for time-varying partner involvement-goal progress associations as couples engaged in their everyday lives. We also assessed time-varying associations between everyday goal progress, effectiveness of partner contributions, and spousal satisfaction with this contribution.
We used multilevel modeling to analyze data from 118 couples (Mage = 70 years, SD = 5.9; 60-87 years, 50% women; 57% White). Both partners reported their personal goals and provided information on relationship satisfaction, conflict, and support. They also provided simultaneous ratings of everyday goal progress, effort, partner involvement as well as effectiveness of and satisfaction with partner contribution up to three times daily over 7 days.
In line with expectations, higher relationship satisfaction and support and lower conflict were associated with higher goal progress when the partner was involved in goal pursuit. Both effectiveness of and satisfaction with partner contributions were positively associated with everyday goal progress.
Whether partner involvement is beneficial for goal progress depends on characteristics of the relationship as well as what partners actually do in everyday life. This highlights the importance of considering both stable person characteristics as well as time-varying processes to capture the complexity of goal pursuit in older couples.
本研究关注配偶在个人追求目标资源特别有限的人生阶段促进目标进展的作用。具体来说，我们考察了老年时期的关系特征在夫妻日常生活中对伴侣参与-目标进展关系的时变调节作用。我们还评估了日常目标进展、伴侣贡献的有效性以及配偶对这种贡献的满意度之间的时变关联。
我们使用多层次模型分析了来自 118 对夫妻的数据（平均年龄 = 70 岁，标准差 = 5.9；60-87 岁，50%女性；57%白人）。两位伴侣都报告了他们的个人目标，并提供了关于关系满意度、冲突和支持的信息。他们还在 7 天内每天最多三次同时评估日常目标进展、努力、伴侣参与度以及对伴侣贡献的有效性和满意度。
符合预期的是，当伴侣参与目标追求时，更高的关系满意度和支持度以及更低的冲突与更高的目标进展相关。伴侣贡献的有效性和满意度都与日常目标进展呈正相关。
伴侣的参与是否有利于目标进展取决于关系的特征以及伴侣在日常生活中实际做了什么。这凸显了考虑稳定的个人特征和时变过程以捕捉老年夫妇目标追求复杂性的重要性。
