ArticleAging & mental health2022
Negative marital interaction, purpose in life, and depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older couples: evidence from the Health and Retirement Study.
Article in Aging & mental health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sense of purpose fluctuations in daily life: A study of young adults and cognitively diverse older adults.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Discordance in gender role attitudes between spouses and its relationship with the risk biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases: a couple-level analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Square dance participation and subjective well-being among urban older adults: mediating roles of social support and optimism.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The effect of marital status on cervical cancer related prognosis: a propensity score matching study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Perceived spousal similarity in outlook on life: implications for later-life well-being.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Transportation barriers, loneliness, and depressive/anxiety symptoms in older adults.Innovation in aging · 2025Article
- The effect of childhood family adversity on adulthood depression among Chinese older migrant workers: gender differences in the mediating role of social-ecological systems.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Purpose in Daily Life: Considering Within-Person Sense of Purpose Variability.Journal of research in personality · 2024Article
- Studying the impact of marital status on diagnosis and survival prediction in pancreatic ductal carcinoma using machine learning methods.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Purposeful and purposeless aging: Structural issues for sense of purpose and their implications for predicting life outcomes.Developmental psychology · 2024Article
- Correlated Change in Sense of Purpose and Romantic Relationship Quality.Personal Relationships · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveNegative marital interaction and purpose in life have been associated with depressive symptoms. Yet, these associations have not been fully explored in a dyadic context. This study examines the actor (intra-individual) and partner (cross-spousal) effects of negative marital interaction on depressive symptoms in couples and the potential mediating role of purpose in life.
methodsData came from 1186 heterosexual married couples who participated in the 2016 (T1) and 2018 (T2) waves of the Health and Retirement Study and completed the psychosocial questionnaire in 2016. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the direct and indirect associations among T1 negative marital interaction, T1 purpose in life, and T2 depressive symptoms at the actor and partner levels. Models controlled for age, race, educational level, self-rated health, and length of marriage.
resultsAt the actor level, a greater negative marital interaction was associated with significantly lower levels of purpose in life for husbands and wives. Negative marital interaction was also associated with depressive symptoms for wives. Purpose in life mediated the relationship between negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms. At the partner level, wives' negative marital interaction was negatively associated with husbands' purpose in life, independent of husbands' own effects.
conclusionThe findings support the dominant marital discord model of depression and highlight gender differences in the cross-spousal effects of negative marital interaction on purpose in life. Positive psychology interventions can be beneficial to promote purpose in life and subsequently improve mental health outcomes among couples.
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