To Love is to Suffer: Older Adults' Daily Emotional Contagion to Perceived Spousal Suffering.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

For older adults coping with a spouse's chronic condition, greater marital satisfaction may not be entirely protective for psychological health. We examined marital satisfaction and gender as moderators of the association between perceived spousal suffering and daily emotional contagion. Based on empathy-altruism and interdependent self-construal theories, we hypothesized that high marital satisfaction and being female would heighten daily emotional contagion, or within-person associations between perceived spouse suffering and distress to spouse suffering.

Method

Forty-five older adults who had a spouse with a musculoskeletal condition completed daily interviews. Participants reported their marital satisfaction once in the laboratory and then daily perceptions of

SUBMITTER: Monin JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5926986 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature