Longitudinal associations of spousal support and strain with health and well‐being: An outcome‐wide study of married older U.S. Adults

Abstract

In the present study, we examined the prospective associations of both spousal support and spousal strain with a wide range of health and well‐being outcomes in married older adults. Applying the analytic template for outcome‐wide designs, three waves of longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 7788, Mage = 64.2 years) were analyzed using linear regression, logistic regression, and generalized linear models. A set of models was performed for spousal support and another set of models for spousal strain (2010/2012, t1). Outcomes included 35 different aspects of physical health, health behaviors, psychological well‐being, psychological distress, and social factors (2014/2016, t2). All models adjusted for pre‐baseline levels of sociodemographic covariates and all outcomes (2006/2008, t0). Spousal support evidenced positive associations with five psychological well‐being outcomes, as well as negative associations with five psychological distress outcomes and loneliness. Conversely, spousal strain evidenced negative associations with three psychological well‐being outcomes, in addition to positive associations with three psychological distress outcomes and loneliness. The magnitude of these associations was generally small, although some effect estimates were somewhat larger. Associations of both spousal support and strain with other social and health‐related outcomes were more negligible. Both support and strain within a marital relationship have the potential to impact various aspects of psychological well‐being, psychological distress, and loneliness in the aging population.