A Longitudinal Investigation Into Marital Quality as a Mediator Linking Childhood Abuse to Affective Symptoms

Application of attachment theory to the study of sexual abuse

Michael Fitzgerald, Kelly Berthiaume and Deborah S Carr

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2021, vol. 76, issue 10, 2112-2120

Abstract: ObjectiveChildhood abuse is positively associated with adult mental health problems and adult interpersonal relationships have been previously suggested to be a mediator. The role of marital partners, however, is less well understood. The current study will investigate marital quality as a mediator linking childhood abuse and positive and negative affective symptoms.MethodThe current study utilized 3 waves of data from the Midlife Development in the United States. Using a sample of 1,104 married adults (95.4% White), structural equation modeling examined the mediating effect of marital quality linking childhood abuse to positive and negative affective symptoms over a 20-year period.ResultsStructural equation modeling revealed that childhood abuse was inversely associated with marital quality but was not directly associated with positive or negative affective symptoms. Marital quality was positively associated with greater positive affect and negatively associated with lower negative affect over a 9-year period, controlling for prior symptoms. Tests of indirect effects indicate that marital quality mediated the relationship between childhood abuse to both positive and negative affective symptoms, fully accounting for the association.DiscussionIt appears that childhood abuse impacts the quality of adults’ marriages, which may have significant implications for both positive and negative aspects of adult mental health. Marriages may be an important factor in understanding mental health in midlife and older adults among adults who were abused. Interventions should target the quality of adult marriages, and focusing on marital support, strain, and disagreement may be particularly effective.

Keywords: Childhood abuse; Marital quality; Mediation; Mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab095 (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:76:y:2021:i:10:p:2112-2120.

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 ().