Friendship and Depression Among Couples in Later Life: The Moderating Effects of Marital Quality

Sae Hwang Han, Kyungmin Kim and Jeffrey A Burr

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2019, vol. 74, issue 2, 222-231

Abstract: Objectives The aims of the study were to examine within-person associations between social interactions with friends (one’s own and partner’s) and depressive symptoms over time among couples in later life and to investigate whether marital quality moderated the associations. Method sWe used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (2004–2012) to examine a sample of coupled individuals (dyad N = 6,833). Dyadic growth curve models were employed to test the study hypotheses. Results Results indicated that more frequent social interactions with friends were associated with fewer depressive symptoms of individuals and there were cross-spousal effects for this association. Further, marital quality moderated the within-person association between social interaction with friends and depressive symptoms such that the association was stronger for individuals experiencing poor marital quality compared to those with better marital quality. Discussion Friendship is an important contributor to individuals’ mental health in later life, with its benefits having far-reaching consequences for one’s significant other. The implications of friendship interactions for other health domains also require investigation within the marital context.

Keywords: Couple-level models; Linked lives; Marital strain; Social ties; Spousal support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx046 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:2:p:222-231.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().