Happily ever after? Marital satisfaction during the middle adulthood years.

Author(s):  
Barbara A. Mitchell
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-54
Author(s):  
Nilay Pekel Uludağlı ◽  
Şeyda Pekçetin

Background: The life course health development approach, as a new theoretical model relating to health, dwells on psychosocial factors as well as biological factors, and it proposes that the effects of developmental timing unfolding over one’s lifespan should be considered. Based on this theoretical model, as well as empirical studies relating to marriage and health, one of the psychosocial factors that may contribute to the health of middle-aged individuals is the marital relationship. Aims: The aim of this study – conducted with individuals in middle adulthood – is to investigate the relationships between marital satisfaction, age at the time of marriage, SES (socioeconomic status) and psychological and physical health. Method: Data was collected from middle-aged individuals between 40–69 years in Turkey (160 women and 142 men). The World Health Organization Quality of Life Measurement Tool, Brief Symptom Inventory, Marriage Life Scale, and a Demographic Information Form were used to assess the participants’ perceived physical and psychological health, their marital satisfaction, their age of marriage, and SES. Results: A path analysis indicated that the age of marriage was positively related, and perceived psychological health problems were negatively related to perceived physical health. Both marital satisfaction and SES were negatively related to perceived psychological health problems. Upon examination of the mediator role of psychological health problems and SES, it was observed that both marital satisfaction and SES were related to perceived physical health through perceived psychological health problems. Also, the age of marriage was related to perceived psychological health problems via SES. Conclusion: The findings showed that marriage is an important component in the evaluation of perceived health in middle age; individuals are healthier when they get married at a more mature age and have a positive marital relationship.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-241
Author(s):  
A. Neemi Devi ◽  
Minoti Phukan

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 158-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Boll ◽  
Tom Michels ◽  
Dieter Ferring ◽  
Sigrun-Heide Filipp

Despite its importance for basic and applied psychology, only a few longitudinal studies have examined whether parental differential treatment (PDT) is a persistent or a transient phenomenon, these studies being confined to childhood or adolescence. Based on latent state-trait theory, the present study identified the amount of variance in three dimensions of perceived PDT in middle adulthood attributable to stable interindividual differences (trait variance) and to intraindividual changes (state variance). At two occasions of measurement (2 years apart), 709 middle-aged adults rated how often they and a sibling currently received parental recognition, nurture, and demand to assume filial responsibility. Tests of latent state-trait models for these three dimensions of PDT by structural equation modeling revealed that trait variance represented the largest proportion of the systematic variance in all observed indicators of perceived maternal and paternal differential treatment. Yet there was a considerable increase in state variance for the dimension of differential parental demand for assuming responsibility. Results are discussed with respect to the conditions accounting for the high overall stability of actual and/or perceived PDT in adulthood, and different approaches for determining their role are proposed.


1986 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-30
Author(s):  
Florence L. Denmark
Keyword(s):  

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