Who’s Worried? Memory, Worries About Dementia, and Marital Strain in Midlife Same- and Different-Sex Marriages: A Dyadic Perspective

Yiwen WangPhD

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2024, vol. 79, issue 8, 174550651881799-35

Abstract: ObjectivesPrior scholarship has highlighted the importance of marriage for cognition. However, little research has considered how cognition-related concerns may impact marriage. In this study, researchers examine how aging couples view each other’s memory and worry about their potential development of dementia in the future. Additionally, researchers investigate whether these cognition-related concerns may strain marriage, and how these dynamics differ for men and women in same- and different-sex marriages.MethodsResearchers used 2 waves of dyadic data from the Health and Relationships Project (HARP; 2015–2022), including 594 respondents from 297 same- and different-sex married couples (aged 41–71 at Time 2). Researchers employed the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to explore associations between actor and partner reports of memory and dementia worry with marital strain.ResultsMen and women in same- and different-sex marriages were equally likely to report worries about their own potential development of dementia. However, women reported more concerns about their spouse developing dementia in the future than men did, regardless of whether they were married to a man or a woman. Both partners’ reports of memory and dementia worry played a complex role in influencing marital strain, with variations observed across couple types.DiscussionConcerns about cognitive decline and dementia are common in older populations, and for married couples, spouses have concerns about their own memory as well as that of their partner. Researchers finding identified the significance of concerns about a spouse’s memory on marital dynamics among aging couples.

Keywords: Dementia worry; Dyadic data; Marital quality; Same-sex couples (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbae090 (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:79:y:2024:i:8:p:174550651881799-35.

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 ().